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MEN  AROUND  THE 
KAISER  •  THE  MAKERS 
OF  MODERN  GERMANY 

By  FREDERIC  WILLIAM  WILE 

Berlin  Correspondent  of  the  London  Daily  Mail  and  New  York  Times 


ILLUSTRATED  WITH 
PORTRAITS 


*0 

X 


INDIANAPOLIS 

THE  BOBBS-MERRILL  COMPANY 
PUBLISHERS 


Copyright,  1914 

THE  B0BBS-MERR1LL  COMPANY 


TO  MY  WIFE 


PREFACE 


WILLIAM  II.,  German  Emperor  and  King 
of  Prussia,  is  about  to  commemorate 
his  Silver  Jubilee.  Twenty-five  years 
of  eventful  sovereignty  have  brought  his  Empire 
to  the  pinnacle  of  national  greatness.  Under  his 
dynamic  leadership  the  Fatherland  has  Advanced 
to  front  rank  in  the  peaceful  arts  of  commerce  and 
trade,  made  herself  the  world’s  first  military  power, 
and  become  Britain’s  formidable  rival  for  the  mas¬ 
tery  of  the  sea.  No  reign,  medieval  or  modern, 
records  a  more  inspiring  story  of  a  people’s  vault 
to  affluence  and  might.  Wondrous  and  eloquent 
are  the  statistical  revelations  of  Germany’s  bound¬ 
ing  growth  in  population,  of  Imperial  Berlin’s  rise 
to  metropolitan  splendour,  of  the  Empire’s  colossal 
foreign  trade,  of  the  amazing  expansion  of  national 
wealth,  of  the  development  of  the  merchant  marine, 
of  the  transformation  of  the  Navy  from  a  fleet  of 
frigates  into  an  Armada  of  Dreadnoughts,  of  tri¬ 
umphs  countless  in  the  realms  of  science,  art  and 
industry,  which  combine  to  make  the  German  name 
synonymous  with  progress  and  power. 

Vigorous  and  virile  at  fifty-four,  his  Silver 
Jubilee  finds  the  Kaiser  still  the  world’s  model 


PREFACE 


of  an  aggressively  able  and  ambitious  monarch. 
Posterity  alone  can  decide  whether  he  is  the  sin¬ 
ister  figure  portrayed  by  detractors,  a  prince  who 
preaches  peace  and  plots  war,  or  whether  his 
strength  and  talents,  as  he  is  fond  of  assuring 
Europe  with  mystifying  eloquence,  are  sincerely 
and  inviolably  dedicated  to  the  cause  of  interna¬ 
tional  amity.  Back  of  William  II.,  at  any  rate, 
lies  a  reign  of  unbroken  peace.  Whatever  laurels 
Mars  may  still  have  in  store  for  him,  the  Kaiser 
has  ruled  for  a  quarter  of  a  century,  rich  only  in 
the  achievements  of  an  enlightened  and  industrious 
civilisation. 

The  world  at  large,  fascinated  by  his  kaleido¬ 
scopic  and  picturesque  personality,  is  prone  to 
accord  the  Kaiser  almost  exclusive  credit  for  the 
Fatherland’s  magic  leap  into  Weltmacht.  As  Man¬ 
aging  Director  of  Germany,  Ltd.,  Emperor  William 
has  been  called  upon  to  play  a  heavy  role ,  and  has 
played  it  with  eminent  success;  but  Germany’s  de¬ 
velopment  has  not  been  a  one-man  show.  There 
have  been  many  Makers  of  Modern  Germany. 
Their  identities  and  personalities,  with  rare  excep¬ 
tions,  have  escaped  notice  abroad  amid  the  paeans 
of  praise  so  indiscriminately  showered  upon  the 
gifted  Kaiser.  To  sketch  the  careers  and  characters 
of  some  of  these  latter-day  Teutonic  Knights  is 
the  purpose  of  this  volume. 

Berlin, 

May,  1913. 


F.  W.  W. 


INTRODUCTION 


"V"  N  the  light  of  events,  I  am  tempted  to  clothe  this 
collection  of  pen-pictures  of  the  Kaisermanner 
JL  with  a  new  sub-title — to  call  them  the  “War- 
Makers  of  Modern  Germany.”  For  Emperor 
William  at  this  hour  undoubtedly  rules  a  nation  of 
men  who  are  all  for  war.  Bismarck  rallied  the  dis¬ 
united  peoples  of  the  Empire-to-be  round  the  cause 
of  William  I  of  Prussia  by  distorting  the  Ems  tele¬ 
gram.  But  the  historic  effects  of  that  patriotic 
forgery  were  not  more  potent — the  popularisation 
of  a  manufactured  war — than  William  II’s  allegation 
of  four  weeks  ago,  that  the  sword  was  “forced” 
into  his  hand  by  the  warlike  preparations  of  the 
Czar  while  German  diplomacy  was  immersed  in  the 
promotion  of  peace. 

The  fact  remains  that  the  Kaiser,  never  so 
astute  as  in  this  super-crisis  of  his  reign,  con¬ 
trived  to  make  his  people,  the  overwhelming  ma¬ 
jority  of  whom  craved  for  the  uninterrupted 
continuance  of  their  peaceful  prosperity,  mad  for 
war.  Von  Tirpitz,  Von  der  Goltz,  Von  Koester 
and  their  confreres  are  sailors  and  soldiers.  War 
is  their  trade.  They  have  prayed  for  this  day.  But 


INTRODUCTION 


the  Ballins,  the  Gwinners,  the  Hauptmanns — the 
merchant,  the  banker,  the  poet — who  were  yester¬ 
day  men  of  peace,  either  because  of  material  in¬ 
terests  or  sentimental  predilections,  are  to-day 
fervid  devotees  at  the  smoking  shrine  of  Mars.  The 
Kaiser  spoke  and  Germany  became  a  nation  of  war- 
makers.  Two  months  ago  the  German  War  Party 
numbered  perhaps  a  million  of  the  Empire’s 
66,000,000  of  inhabitants.  To-day  it  is  the  Peace 
Party  which  comprises  the  ignominious  minority, 
only  it  is  impotent  and  inarticulate,  which  the  War 
Party  distinctly  was  not. 

This  war  of  Germany’s  was  not  born  at  Serajevo 
on  June  28,  when  the  Archduke  Franz  Ferdinand 
and  his  consort  fell  victims  to  the  bullets  of  a  Pan- 
Servian  fanatic.  William  of  Hohenzollern  has 
not  risked  his  dynastic  all— that  and  nothing  less 
is  at  stake  for  him — on  the  impulse  of  two  months’ 
standing.  Serajevo  was  a  pretext,  not  a  cause. 
It  only  applied  the  match  to  a  fire  which'  Military 
Germany  has  been  kindling  for  years.  Treitschke 
forecasted  it — “our  final,  and  greatest,  reckoning” 
with  Europe.  William  II,  with  persistency  and 
energy  which  never  ceased  to  challenge  the  admira¬ 
tion  of  the  world,  has  hammered  the  vital  necessity 
of  preparing  for  it  into  his  loyal  people’s  very 
marrow. 

It  was  my  privilege,  as  the  representative  of 
important  American  and  English  journalistic  in¬ 
terests,  to  live  in  Berlin  during  the  final  years  of 
the  Fatherland’s  restless  preparation  for  war,  to 


INTRODUCTION 


see  Germania  making  her  battle  toilet.  For  a 
decade  and  more  I  have  watched  her  steadily,  rest¬ 
lessly,  becoming  more  terrible  on  land  and  sea.  I 
was  present  at  the  birth  of  her  Dreadnought  navy 
— the  launch  of  the  Nassau,  the  first  all-big-gun 
battleship,  in  March,  1907 — and  saw  her  rise  to 
the  rank  of  the  world’s  second  mightiest  sea  power 
in  the  brief  span  of  seven  years.  Already  the 
strongest  of  land  powers,  I  have  seen  Germany 
within  the  past  year  in  still  a  fresh  spurt  for  mili¬ 
tary  supremacy,  the  raising  of  her  peace  army  by 
150,000  men  to  a  grand  total  of  nearly  a  million, 
and  the  expanding  of  her  whole  colossal  war  estab¬ 
lishment  at  a  cost  of  $250,000,000.  I  have  observed 
the  development  of  an  entirely  new  school  of  German 
literature — the  Bernhardi-Reventlow-Keim  cult — 
under  the  militant  patronage  of  Crown  Prince 
Frederick  William,  and  marveled  with  the  wonder 
of  a  simple  democrat  at  its  brazen  apotheosis  of 
war  as  the  true  foundation  of  German  greatness 
and  at  its  categorical  prognostication  of  war’s 
imminence.  I  have  witnessed  the  development  of 
gigantic  Navy  and  Army  Leagues,  with  member¬ 
ships  running  into  the  millions,  whose  frank  pur¬ 
pose  is  to  educate  the  masses  in  the  doctrine  that 
war  is  inevitable  and  must  be  prepared  for  on  a 
Brobdingnagian  scale.  I  have  met  and  read  the 
political  professors  of  the  great  universities,  the 
mentors  of  the  flower  of  the  nation,  who  pillory 
Pacifism  as  a  corrosive,  un-German  ideal  and  con¬ 
demn  the  principle  of  compulsory  arbitration  of 


TRODUCTION 


international  disputes  as  unworthy  the  consideration 
of  descendants  of  Frederick  the  Great.  I  have 
digested  a  library  of  books  and  brochures  with  one, 
universal  Leitmotif,  denunciation  of  the  cruel  fate 
which  compels  “the  world’s  most  virile  race”  to 
remain  content  with  territorial  confines  more  fitted 
to  Portugal  than  Germany.  I  have  watched  the 
progress  of  the  Imperial  Bank’s  policy  of  “financial 
mobilisation,”  so  successfully  pursued  that  when 
war  came  the  Rcichsbank  disposed  over  the  heaviest 
gold  reserve  in  its  history,  $325,000,000,  the  exact 
sum,  perhaps  not  wholly  by  coincidence,  of  the 
credits  asked  by  the  government  for  the  inaugura¬ 
tion  of  the  Kaiser’s  campaign  against  Europe.  And 
I  have  seen  the  German  War  Chest  in  the  Julius 
Tower  at  Spandau,  Bismarck’s  creation  for  the 
initial  cost  of  mobilisation,  increased  from  a  paltry 
$30,000,000  to  $90,000,000  between  1913  and 
1914. 

To  the  world  at  large,  I  fancy,  these  stupendous 
preparations  are  no  longer  enigmatical.  If  they 
were  precautions  for  peace,  the  imagination  must 
reel  at  the  thought  of  what  Germany  could  have 
done  in  the  way  of  preparations  for  war.  We  know 
now  why  the  gray  legions  of  the  Kaiser  poured 
through  the  streets  of  captive  Brussels  with  bakeries 
on  wheels  and  steaming  soup-pots — the  last  word  in 
organised  efficiency.  Those  ovens  and  pots  were 
the  symbols  of  the  deadly  thoroughness  and  readi¬ 
ness  with  which  Germany  began  this  struggle. 

Humanity  is  asking  why  Germany’s  Supreme 


INTRODUCTION 


War  Lord  chose  midsummer  of  placid  1914  for  the 
carrying  out  of  his  plans;  why,  in  the  name  of  the 
Christian  conscience  he  is  so  fond  of  invoking,  there 
was  foisted  upon  Germany  and  upon  Europe  a  con¬ 
flict  destined  to  reduce  to  insignificance  all  the  wars 
of  men  which  have  ever  gone  before;  why  the 
Kaiser,  admired  as  the  paragon  of  sagacious,  patri¬ 
otic  rulership,  consented  to  a  war  which  is  bound, 
whatever  its  end,  to  wreck  the  prosperity  of  Ger¬ 
many  for  a  generation,  to  bring  sadness  unutterable 
to  thousands  of  her  homes,  to  obliterate  her  young 
manhood  as  if  by  pestilence,  to  set  back  the  wheels 
of  civilisation  itself,  by  reestablishing  the  era  of 
man-killing  savagery?  Why? 

Because  the  German  War  Party  felt  that  the  hour 
was  ripe  at  last  for  the  gratification  of  its  sanguinary 
ambitions  for  the  subjugation  of  Europe;  because 
it  said  to  itself  “Now  or  never!” ;  because  it  believed 
that  Germany,  armed  as  never  before  in  conse¬ 
quence  of  years  of  systematic  preparation,  was 
more  ready  for  the  “final  reckoning”  than  any  of 
her  foes. 

The  spurred  and  helmeted  autocrats  of  Berlin 
and  Potsdam  held  the  army  of  Russia  in  utter 
contempt — said  so  in  plain  language  up  to  the  very 
hour  war  began.  They  flouted  the  “new  France” 
and  boasted  they  would  humble  the  Republic  in 
less  time  than  they  had  humiliated  the  Third  Empire. 
They  looked  across  the  North  Sea,  saw  Ireland  on 
the  brink  of  civil  war,  and  opined  that  Perfidious 
Albion,  even  though  she  might  belie  history  and 

i 


INTRODUCTION 


for  once  essay  to  be  true  to  her  friends  and  allies, 
could  not  dream  of  intervention  in  a  great  Con¬ 
tinental  war.  Of  such  a  thing  as  resistance  to 
Germany’s  descent  upon  Belgium  the  Berlin  mili¬ 
tary  clique  never  dreamed.  On  the  good  will  of  the 
people  of  the  United  States  the  German  war  zealots 
banked  as  confidently  as  on  the  efficiency  of  their 
General  Staff.  Had  not  the  Kaiser’s  policy  of 
cajolery  been  in  merry  operation  for  twelve  years 
and  more — from  the  day  he  sent  his  brother  on  a 
visit  to  these  shores  to  the  last  be  jeweled  order 
bestowed  upon  some  American  millionaire?  Could 
not  “German-Americans”  be  relied  upon  to  influence 
American  public  opinion  in  their  “ex-Fatherland’s” 
favor,  when  the  Mailed  Fist  deemed  the  hour  to 
strike  had  come? 

These  were  the  illusions  which  obsessed  the  minds 
of  the  German  War  Party,  long  drunk  with  self- 
confidence  and  arrogant  sense  of  invincibility,  and 
which  turned  their  intoxication  into  wild  insensate 
conviction  that  Europe  was  at  last  within  their  irre¬ 
sistible  grip.  Germany’s  war  began  as  a  War  of 
Miscalculations. 

Lest  I  be  accused  of  injustice  to  the  German 
name  by  taking  refuge  in  generalities,  let  me  say 
and  emphasize  that  the  German  people,  the  great 
industrious  masses  of  the  nation,  ought  not  to  be 
held  responsible  for  the  woe  into  which  their 
military  overlords  have  plunged  them  and  the 
world.  The  people  of  Germany,  among  whom  it 
was  my  lot  to  spend  the  thirteen  happiest  and  most 


\ 


INTRODUCTION 


fruitful  years  of  my  life,  did  not  want  war.  They 
were  supinely  dragged  into  it.  They  deserve  the 
world’s  pity,  not  its  condemnation.  Europe  and 
Asia  have  united  not  to  throttle  the  German  people, 
but  the  Moloch  of  Militarism  which  has  yoked  them 
to  its  juggernaut  and  which  will  not  be  content 
till  it  has  subjugated  the  rest  of  Christendom,  if 
it  be  not  crushed  in  this  titanic  struggle.  How  long, 
for  instance,  do  Americans  think  that  Militarism 
Triumphant  would  wait  before  demanding  the 
abandonment  of  that  arrogant  institution  which  we 
are  pleased  to  cherish  as  the  Monroe  Doctrine, 
because — as  young  Germans  are  taught  by  their 
university  professors — it  effectually  bars  the  way  to 
the  establishment  of  the  goose-step  in  South 
America? 

These  War-Makers  of  Modern  Germany  are 
waging  a  fight  worthy  of  their  past  and  befitting 
their  present  greatness.  Amid  the  din  and  clash 
of  battle  they  have  forgotten  the  whys  and  where¬ 
fores  of  what  preceded  the  conflict.  Spurred  on 
by  the  sheer  dictates  of  self-preservation,  they  are 
warring  as  men  always  war  when  the  stake  is 
national  life  or  death.  They  will  prove  as  terrible 
in  arms  as  they  were  mighty  in  peace.  They  will 
not  return  defeated  to  workshop  and  hearth  as 
long  as  a  flicker  of  fighting  strength  is  left  in 
them. 

My  little  son,  born  within  ear-shot  of  the  rifle- 
ranges  of  Tempelhof  Feld,  will  be  proud  to  tell,  in 
the  years  to  come,  that  he  first  saw  the  light  of  day, 


INTRODUCTION 

not  in  the  land  of  the  Napoleonic  Kaiser,  but  among 
his  people  which,  emerge  as  it  may  from  this  gory 
cataclysm,  will  stand  forth  in  the  world’s  story  for¬ 
ever,  great  and  glorious. 

The  Author 

New  York,  August  28,  1914. 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER  PAGE 

o  I.  Admiral  von  Tirpitz:  Creator  of  the  Navy. . .  i  y 

o  II.  Alfred  Ballin:  Merchant  of  Hamburg .  io  xc 

III.  Dr.  von  Bethmann  Hollweg:  The  Philos¬ 
opher-  Chancellor .  19 


o  IV.  Prince  Furstenberg:  The  Man  Behind  the 

Throne .  27^.  ' — 

o  V.  Arthur  von  Gwinner:  Banker  and  Railway 

Builder .  35  ^ 

0  ‘'  VI.  Prince  Henry  of  Prussia:  Sailor  and  Sports¬ 
man  .  45^ 

O  VII.  Count  Zeppelin:  Commander  of  the  Air .  54 


\  VIII.  The  Crown  Prince:  The  Kaiser  of  To-morrow 

O  IX.  Emil  Rathenau:  Engineer,  Electrician,  and 
Financier . 

X.  Max  Reinhardt:  Stage  Reformer . 

XI.  Ernst  von  Heydebrand:  “The  Uncrowned 
King  of  Prussia” . 

XII.  Richard  Strauss:  Composer  and  Revolution¬ 
ary  . 


63 

71  V 

80 


97 


XIII.  Hans  Delbruck:  The  Professor  in  Politics.  .  . .  106 

XIV.  August  Sch erl:  Pioneer  of  the  Press .  115 

0  XV.  Prince  von  Buelow:  Statesman,  Diplomat 

and  Sphinx .  123 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER  PAGE 

0  XVI.  Admiral  von  Koester:  President  of  the  Navy- 

League .  132 

P  XVII.  Marschall  von  Bieberstein:  The  Giant  of 

the  Golden  Horn .  140 

C  XVIII.  August  Thyssen:  Iron  King .  149 

XIX.  Max  Liebermann:  The  German  Millet .  158 

XX.  Bernhard  Dernburg:  A  Business  Man  in 

Politics .  168 

0  XXI.  Count  von  Bernstorff:  A  Democratic  Diplo¬ 
mat .  176 

0  XXII.  Krupp  von  Bohlen:  The  Master  of  Essen. . .  .  184 

XXIII.  Maximilian  Harden:  Journalist  and  Matador  193 

XXIV.  Von  Jagow:  Foreign  Secretary .  201 

XXV.  Von  der  Goltz:  Organiser  and  Strategist .  208 

%  XXVI.  Gerhart  Hauptmann:  Poet  and  Playwright.. .  218 

XXVII.  Prince  Lichnowsky:  The  Peace-Keeper  in 

London .  228 

XXVIII.  Von  Kiderlen  Waechter:  The  Man  of  Agadir  237 

^  XXIX.  Paul  Ehrlich:  Fighter  of  Disease .  245 

0  XXX.  Count  von  Posadowsky:  Social  Reformer.  .  . .  254 


MEN  AROUND  THE  KAISER 


I 


VON  TIRPITZ 

WHEN  the  history  of  Germany’s  mighty 
naval  development  comes  to  be  written 
one  name  will  stand  out  in  boldest  relief 
— Von  Tirpitz.  To  this  giant,  fork-bearded  sailor- 
statesman,  a  magnificent  specimen  of  Teuton  phy¬ 
sique  of  the  old  school,  must  fall  the  lion’s  share  of 
credit  for  the  persistent  aggressiveness  with  which 
the  Fatherland  has  rushed  to  front  rank  as  a  sea 
power.  He  is  the  real  creator  of  the  Kaiser’s  fleet. 

“Tirpitz  the  Eternal,”  they  call  him  in  Berlin.  For 
nearly  fifteen  years  he  has  been  unbrokenly  at  the 
helm.  No  other  German  Minister  but  Bismarck 
ever  survived  the  vicissitudes  of  politics  so  long. 
Imperial  Chancellors  have  come  and  gone.  War 
Ministers,  Foreign  Secretaries,  Chancellors  of  the 
Exchequer,  Home  Secretaries  and  Postmasters- 
General  have  appeared  and  disappeared  by  the  half- 
dozen.  But  the  man  who  designed  and  launched  the 
Naval  Law  has  gone  on  for  ever — an  enduring 
embodiment  of  the  Fatherland’s  determined  and 
consistent  bid  for  power  at  sea.  A  fulsome  “semi¬ 
official”  book  recently  off  the  press,  “Kaiser 

I 


V. 


MEN  AROUND  THE  KAISER 


Wilhelm  II.  and  the  Navy,”  acclaims  the  Supreme 
War  Lord  as  the  architect-in-chief  of  the  German 
Armada.  At  the  risk  of  lese-rnajcstc,  I  make  bold 
to  bestow  the  laurels  where  they  belong — on  Grand- 
Admiral  Alfred  von  Tirpitz,  Secretary  of  State  for 
the  Imperial  Navy  since  1898. 

A  commoner  by  birth,  with  little  at  his  back  except 
indomitable  energy,  will  and  ambition,  Von  Tirpitz 
has  advanced,  through  sheer  force  of  ability  and 
zeal,  from  a  naval  cadetship  to  the  supreme  direction 
of  the  Empire’s  sea  forces.  He  is  the  world’s  only 
Minister  of  Marine  who  incorporates  the  rare  com¬ 
bination  of  seamanship,  executive  talent  and  states¬ 
manship. 

Because  he  is  a  great  politician,  report  periodi¬ 
cally  associates  Von  Tirpitz’s  name  with  the  Imperial 
Chancellorship.  Germany  is  not  rich  in  strong  men 
of  premiership  rank.  Von  Tirpitz  is  one  of  them. 
His  work  at  the  Admiralty  may  be  said  to  be 
finished.  He  has  not  only  hewn  the  way,  but  trod  it 
for  a  decade  and  a  half,  and  he  has  bred  a  school  of 
able  subordinates  who  make  the  master  hand  no 
longer  indispensable. 

A  Von  Tirpitz  Chancellorship  would  mean  but 
one  thing — a  German  Government  with  “full  steam 
ahead”  as  its  naval  policy.  He  is  the  man  who  con¬ 
ceived  the  naval  programme.  It  is  he  who  abetted 
and  promoted  the  “supplementary”  legislation  which 
has  raised  the  Fatherland’s  Fleet  expenditure  by 
steady  stages  from  $30,000,000  in  1898  to  $125,- 
000,000  in  1913.  His  is  the  astute  diplomacy  which 

2 


VON  TIRPITZ 


has  so  successfully  played  upon  the  passions  of 
people  and  Parliament  for  the  purpose  of  incessant 
naval  expansion. 

Von  Tirpitz’s  career  is  an  inspiring  contradiction 
of  the  theory  that  birth  and  caste  are  essential  to 
advancement  in  German  Government  service.  Born 
far  remote  from  salt  water,  at  Kiistrin-on-Oder,  in 
the  Mark  of  Brandenburg,  as  the  son  of  a  Prussian 
K.  C.,  there  is  nothing  in  his  origin  to  suggest  the 
future  admiral  and  naval  statesman.  At  sixteen, 
at  the  end  of  a  gymnasium  education,  he  became 
a  cadet  in  the  modest  aggregation  of  frigates  known 
as  the  Prussian  Navy.  Four  years  later  he  had  won 
a  lieutenancy,  and  at  twenty-five  he  had  attained 
the  coveted  rank  of  a  lieutenant-commander.  It 
was  while  in  this  comparatively  unimportant  posi¬ 
tion  that  Von  Tirpitz  first  revealed  his  amazing 
capacity  for  initiative,  and  his  ability  to  impose  his 
ideas  on  superior  and  inferior  alike — talents  which 
supply  the  keynote  of  his  character  and  which  were 
to  prove  the  foundation  of  his  career.  He  devel¬ 
oped  a  marvellous  habit  of  thinking  and  seeing  far 
ahead  of  comrades  afloat  and  ashore.  When  he 
had  unfolded  his  ideas  he  proceeded  to  win  adher¬ 
ents,  who  found  themselves  championing  Von 
Tirpitz  and  his  projects  with  even  more  enthusiasm 
than  he  did  himself.  He  seemed  predestined  to 
create  and  to  lead.  A  practice  which  rallied  around 
the  enthusiastic  young  officer  the  keenest  minds  in 
the  service  was  his  disregard  of  the  ethics  of  mere 
seniority  and  other  relics  of  Prussian  militarism 

3 


MEN  AROUND  THE  KAISER 


still  latent  in  the  budding  Imperial  Navy.  He  laid 
down  the  principle  that  merit  was  the  only  claim  to 
real  seniority,  and  that  any  other  kind  did  not 
count. 

In  1891  Von  Tirpitz  had  carved  his  way  to  the 
chiefship  of  staff  at  the  Kiel  station,  the  head¬ 
quarters  of  the  Fleet,  a  position  which  gave  him 
rich  opportunity  for  his  inexhaustible  powers  of 
initiative  and  organisation.  With  far-seeing  eye 
he  first  turned  his  attention  to  the  creation  and 
perfection  of  the  torpedo  service.  The  German 
Fleet’s  acknowledged  strength  in  that  branch  of 
naval  warfare  is  essentially  and  primarily  Von 
Tirpitz’s  achievement.  It  was  he  who  mapped 
out  and  mobilised  the  torpedo-boat  division,  which, 
when  he  took  hold  of  it,  consisted  of  a  handful 
of  insignificant  mosquito  craft.  He  discovered 
officers  peculiarly  adapted  to  the  needs  of  torpedo 
tactics,  and  by  dint  of  restless  example  and  enthu¬ 
siasm,  welded  them  into  an  aggregation  of  experts 
who  now  form  the  backbone  of  the  Empire’s  sea¬ 
fighting  forces.  Having  founded  the  torpedo 
school,  Von  Tirpitz  now  dedicated  himself  to 
bringing  order  out  of  administrative  chaos  at  the 
Kiel  station.  He  criticised  fearlessly  and  irresist¬ 
ibly.  He  attacked  as  archaic  the  system  of  co¬ 
ordinate  authority  at  the  Admiralty  in  Berlin  and 
the  water’s  edge  on  the  Baltic.  It  was  reserved 
for  him  a  year  and  a  half  later  to  be  elevated  to 
the  heights  at  which  he  had  himself  hurled  so  many 
vigorous  broadsides — the  State  Secretaryship  of 

4 


VON  TIRPITZ 


the  Admiralty  at  Berlin.  He  was  to  be  given  a 
chance  to  prove  his  theories  in  practice. 

It  was  a  glorious  opportunity  to  fail.  There 
were  many  ready  to  trip  him.  His  advance  from 
the  quarter-deck  to  the  Cabinet  had  not  left  him 
unscarred  by  rivals  and  critics.  But  Von  Tirpitz 
had  acquired  the  art  of  succeeding,  and  so  many 
scalps  were  dangling  at  his  belt  before  he  had  been 
at  the  Admiralty  two  years,  that  the  honour  of  a 
vice-admiralship  fell  to  him  at  the  end  of  that 
period.  He  was  already  known  throughout  the 
service  by  the  hardly  less  flattering  unofficial  title 
of  “Der  Meister”  (the  master). 

Von  Tirpitz  was  already  peering  sagaciously  into 
the  future.  Having  accomplished  the  herculean 
task  of  administrative  reorganisation,  he  began 
to  busy  himself  with  the  paramount  question  of 
a  fleet  worthy  of  the  name.  Germany’s  industrial 
development  was  in  full  swing.  Her  oversea  trade 
and  merchant  marine  were  attaining  gigantic  pro¬ 
portions.  Von  Tirpitz  found  the  moment  propitious 
for  spreading  the  gospel  of  a  great  Navy.  Then, 
in  the  autumn  of  1899,  came  the  historic  Bundesrat 
incident.  The  seizure  of  a  German  mail-packet 
by  an  English  man-of-war  was  exploited  with 
Napoleonic  skill  as  an  ocular  demonstration  of  the 
constant  danger  confronting  the  unprotected  Ger¬ 
man  merchant  flag.  The  Naval  Law  of  1900  was 
born  in  Von  Tirpitz’s  brain  amid  a  wave  of  patriotic 
fervour  which  the  Bundesrat  affair  sent  rolling 
across  the  Fatherland.  Its  passage  earned  him 

5 


MEN  AROUND  THE  KAISER 


the  honour  of  hereditary  nobility,  the  coveted  von. 
The  launching  of  the  first  big  battleships  under  the 
new  Bill,  the  13,000-tonners  of  the  Braunschweig 
class,  in  1902  brought  him  still  another  distinction, 
the  rank  of  full  admiral.  In  1907,  after  Von 
Tirpitz  had  induced  the  Reichstag,  through  skilful 
preparation  of  public  sentiment,  to  pass  the  Sup¬ 
plementary  Naval  Bill,  raising  the  displacement  of 
battleships  and  battle-cruisers  to  Dreadnought  pro¬ 
portions  at  the  rate  of  four  to  six  launchings  a 
year,  the  grateful  Supreme  War  Lord  conferred 
upon  his  able  administrator  the  Order  of  the  Black 
Eagle,  the  highest  German  reward  for  distinguished 
merit. 

It  would  libel  Von  Tirpitz  to  stigmatise  him  as 
Anglophobe.  He  is  anything  but  that.  He  is  a 
profound  admirer  of  everything  British.  All  his 
children  have  been  educated  in  England.  English 
naval  traditions  command  his  reverential  respect. 
He  has  never  ceased  to  hold  them  up  to  German 
sailormen  as  a  model  and  inspiration.  When  he 
designed  the  Naval  Law,  he  had  little  idea  of 
entering  the  lists  with  Britain  as  an  active  com¬ 
petitor.  British  mistakes — the  opportunities  offered 
Germany  to  catch  up  with  the  Mistress  of  the  Seas 
— gave  him  his  chance.  He  took  it,  being  a  wise 
man  and  a  statesman,  and  as  often  as  succeeding 
events  provided  fresh  opportunities  he  seized  them 
too. 

Manifold  and  versatile  as  Von  Tirpitz’s  services 
have  been  they  have  been  pre-eminent  on  the 

6 


VON  TIRPITZ 


administrative  side.  Till  he  took  hold  of  the 
Admiralty,  German  naval  conditions  were  more  or 
less  chaotic.  They  lacked  the  continuity  and  sys¬ 
tem  of  the  Army.  The  conception  of  the  programme 
was  his  first  achievement.  Then  he  was  confronted 
with  the  task  of  popularising  it  and  of  manipulat¬ 
ing  public  sentiment  from  time  to  time,  whenever 
the  moment  was  ripe  for  extending  the  ramifica¬ 
tions  of  the  original  project.  The  triumphs  of  the 
Navy  League  and  of  the  Admiralty  Press  Bureau 
— the  conversion  of  the  nation  to  a  religious  belief 
in  its  “bitter  need’’  of  sea-power  and  in  its  “future 
on  the  water” — are  the  triumphs  of  Von  Tirpitz. 
He  may  himself  disavow  them,  as  he  does  so  per¬ 
suasively  and  adroitly  from  his  place  in  the  Reichs¬ 
tag  on  recurring  occasions,  but  the  laurels  are  his 
for  all  that.  The  pamphlets  and  Press  polemics 
and  periodical  campaigns  which  always  precede  and 
accompany  German  naval  increases  bear  far  too 
plainly  the  earmarks  of  a  directing  genius  to  be 
identified  with  anybody  but  “Tirpitz  the  Eternal.” 

Iron  resoluteness  is  Von  Tirpitz’s  dominating 
characteristic.  It  has  been  the  making  of  him  and 
of  the  German  Fleet.  He  is  the  one  minister  of 
his  imperious  master  who  is  not  accustomed  to 
yield.  He  has  a  will  of  his  own  and  knows  how 
to  enforce  it. 

It  has  been  my  privilege  on  occasion  to  discuss 
Anglo-German  naval  policy  with  Von  Tirpitz. 
He  is  suavity  and  frankness  incarnate.  He  con¬ 
fesses  unreservedly  that  his  idea  of  German  sea- 

7 


MEN  AROUND  THE  KAISER 

power  is  that  the  Fatherland  must  prepare  itself  as 
soon  as  possible  to  throw  decisive  weight  into  the 
political  scales  wherever  its  vital  interests  are  con¬ 
cerned.  If  the  balance  of  power  is  altered  to  a 
degree  which  threatens  Germany’s  capacity  to  ex¬ 
ercise  such  influence,  Von  Tirpitz  is  ready  instantly 
to  demand  fresh  sacrifices  from  his  countrymen. 
Specifically,  he  favours  the  two-to-three  standard 
as  the  only  goal  compatible  with  German  necessities, 
as  far  as  Great  Britain  is  concerned. ,  He  believes 
that  the  possession  of  a  fleet  two-thirds  as  powerful 
in  offensive  units  as  the  British  Navy,  would 
effectually  prevent  combined  Anglo-French  military 
operations  against  Germany,  besides  making  naval 
warfare,  in  the  spirit  of  the  Fleet  Law’s  preamble, 
a  grave  risk  for  Britain.  He  believes  religiously 
in  the  invincible  superiority  of  German  guns — 
that  they  will  decide  the  issue  to  Germany’s  im¬ 
perishable  glory  on  the  day  when  the  Kaiser’s 
Trafalgar  is  to  be  fought  and  won.  He  denies 
Germany’s  culpability  for  the  ruinous  competition 
in  naval  armaments.  He  avers  the  author  of  the 
Dreadnought  is  alone  guilty.  He  disclaims  per¬ 
suasively  the  notion  that  the  German  Fleet  is  built 
for  aggression,  and  he  is  irrevocably  opposed  to 
limiting  its  development  by  agreements  of  any  kind. 
These  are  the  ideals  Von  Tirpitz  has  implanted  in 
his  subordinates  at  the  Reichsmarineamt.  They 
will  live  on,  long  after  he  evacuates  the  Secretary¬ 
ship  of  State  for  the  Navy,  whether  for  more 
exalted  surroundings  in  the  Wilhelmstrasse  or  for 

8 


VON  TIRPITZ 


a  life  of  retirement  after  eminent  national 
service. 

Imperial  Germany  will  be  well  guided  if  Von 
Tirpitz  is  ever  called  to  the  bridge.  Sound,  sane 
and  sagacious,  still  young  at  sixty-three,  a  fearless, 
broadminded  patriot,  a  bluff  sailorman  who  presides 
over  an  ideal  family  life,  he  is  a  statesman  in  every 
fibre. 

Germany  would  lose  in  him  a  great  naval  adminis¬ 
trator  to  g'-'iia  great  Chancellor. 


II 


B ALLI N 

OVER  the  portal  of  a  massive  granite  office¬ 
building  on  the  shores  of  Hamburg’s 
placid  Alster  rests  a  tablet  inscribed  “My 
Field  is  the  World.”  It  is  the  fitting  emblem  of 
the  Hamburg-American  Line,  a  private  corporation 
almost  as  dear  to  the  heart  of  the  Kaiser  and  his 
people  as  their  Navy  itself.  It  is,  indeed,  a  national 
institution,  the  “Hapag,”  as  current  custom  in 
Germany  abbreviates  the  title  of  the  Hamburg- 
Amerikanische  Paketfahrt  -  Aktien  -  Gesellschaft, 
which  was  founded  in  the  wooden-ship  era  of 
“Milestones.”  With  its  great  confrere  of  Bremen, 
the  North  German  Lloyd,  it  has  blazed  the  way 
for  German  trade  and  commerce  to  the  uttermost 
corners  of  the  earth.  What  Von  Tirpitz  has  done 
for  the  German  Fleet,  Albert  Ballin,  Director- 
General  of  the  Hamburg-American  Line,  has  done 
for  the  German  mercantile  marine.  He  has  made 
it.  Historians  of  the  German  Empire  of  to-day, 
when  they  write  of  the  race  which  gloried  in  bat¬ 
talions,  battleships  and  business,  will  give  high 
place,  if  they  have  read  the  signs  of  the  times 
aright,  to  the  unassuming  Hamburg  Jew,  who  has 
renounced  titles,  honours  and  office,  but  not  his 
creed. 

“Who  is  the  greatest  German?”  was  the  poser 
io 


B ALLIN 


once  fired  at  a  young  Pomeranian  giant  undergoing 
a  peremptory  cross-examination  in  history  with 
his  fellow-recruits  at  a  Prussian  garrison.  “Ballin !” 
was  the  flashing  reply.  That  is  what  several  million 
perspicacious  Germans  ;think  about  it.  No  other 
man  in  the  country,  King  or  commoner,  has  a 
stronger  claim  to  membership  of  the  immortals  of 
Emperor  William’s  day.  He  is  one  of  the  real 
Makers  of  Modern  Germany.  Ballin  of  Hamburg 
stands  in  the  same  relation  to  the  Kaiser  as  did 
those  counsellors  of  another  generation  to  their 
sovereigns  and  governments — Rothschild  of  Paris 
to  Napoleon  III.,  and  Bleichroeder  of  Berlin  to 
Emperor  William  I.  and  Bismarck.  Having  tried 
and  failed  repeatedly  to  make  him  a  Cabinet  Min¬ 
ister,  William  II.  advises  with  the  Director-General 
of  the  Hapag.  Ballin  always  insists  he  can  be  of 
more  service  to  the  Fatherland  on  the  Alsterdamm 
than  in  the  Wilhelmstrasse.  He  would  be  ludi¬ 
crously  out  of  place  in  a  bureaucratic  environment. 
On  one  of  the  various  occasions  when  the  Kaiser 
sought  to  saddle  a  Ministership  on  Ballin,  or  tack 
von  on  his  plebeian  name,  or  give  him  hereditary 
membership  in  the  Prussian  House  of  Peers,  Ballin 
compromised  by  accepting  His  Majesty’s  photo¬ 
graph.  The  Kaiser  inscribed  it :  “To  the  far-seeing 
and  tireless  pioneer  of  our  commerce  and  export 
■  trade.’’  That  is  a  title  of  which  Albert  Ballin,  long 
the  uncrowned  king  of  his  native  Republic  of  Ham¬ 
burg,  is  prouder  than  Von,  Excellenz,  Staatssekre- 
tar,  Geheimrat  or  any  of  the  other  elongated  tags, 

ii 


MEN  AROUND  THE  KAISER 


to  the  acquisition  of  which  the  average  Teuton 
devotes  his  life. 

Ballin  is  a  thoroughly  self-made  man.  He  was 
born  into  the  trade  in  which  he  was  one  day  to  be 
a  world-figure,  as  the  son  of  a  humble  Hamburg 
emigrant  agent.  Following  the  practice  still  in 
vogue  among  ambitious  young  Germans,  Ballin 
went  to  England  as  a  lad  to  serve  his  commercial 
apprenticeship.  The  irrepressible  Hamburg  “vol¬ 
unteer”  went  in  to  master  the  most  infinitesimal 
details  of  the  navigation  business,  and  specialised 
in  emigrant  traffic,  the  gold-mine  from  which 
Transatlantic  lines  extract  their  richest  gains.  On 
his  return  to  Germany  Ballin  entered  the  employ 
of  the  Carr  Line,  and  was  presently  entrusted  with 
the  minor  duty  of  conducting  emigrant  cargoes 
from  Galicia,  Poland  and  Hungary  to  Hamburg, 
and  embarking  them  for  the  Land  of  Promise 
oversea.  His  eminent  organising  talent  and  sleep¬ 
less  zeal  speedily  made  his  superiors  see  that  he  was 
fitted  for  far  more  important  work.  They  appointed 
him  manager  of  their  entire  emigrant  service.  He 
was  barely  twenty-five  when  these,  the  first  honours 
of  his  chosen  career,  came  to  him.  It  was  not  very 
long  before  the  Hamburg-American  Line  began  to 
take  notice  that  for  some  mysterious  reason  the 
Carrs  were  getting  the  cream  of  the  emigration 
business.  Somebody,  or  something,  was  causing 
the  pilgrims  from  Southern  and  Eastern  Europe 
to  flock  to  the  smaller  rival’s  steamers.  It  was  dis¬ 
covered  that  a  certain  Ballin  was  the  culprit.  The 

12 


BALLIN 


only  way  to  suppress  him,  it  appeared,  and  to 
annihilate  the  competition,  was  to  buy  out  the  Carr 
Line  bodily.  In  1886  it  passed  into  the  Hapag’s 
possession,  and  Ballin  with  it.  The  history  of  the 
Hamburg-American’s  development  dates  from  the 
hour  it  annexed  the  young  man  who  had  cornered 
the  emigrant  market. 

Figures  talk.  In  1886,  when  Ballin  joined  the 
Hapag,  its  capital  was  $3,750,000.  To-day  it  is 
$37,500,00°.  Its  gross  profits  were  $625,000.  In 
1912  they  were  $14,125,000.  In  1886,  twenty-six 
ocean-going  steamships  flew  the  Company’s  blue- 
and-white  pennant.  To-day  it  flutters  from  the 
peaks  of  one  hundred  and  eighty.  In  the  ante- 
Ballin  era  the  Hapag’s  total  tonnage  was  sixty 
thousand.  This  summer  a  single  vessel  of  fifty 
thousand  tons,  the  peerless  Imperator,  is  in  her 
maiden  season.  With  a  sister  ship  and  other 
leviathans  under  construction,  the  Hamburg- 
American’s  gross  tonnage  will  aggregate  roundly 
1,500,000 — a  total  which  dwarfs  the  merchant 
fleets  of  half  a  dozen  European  States. 

The  secret  of  Ballin’s  greatness  lies  in  his  card- 
index  mind.  He  has  an  incorrigible  habit  of  laying 
stress  on  the  unconsidered  trifles,  and  storing  them 
up  systematically.  When  he  was  a  shipping  clerk 
in  England,  at  nothing  a  week,  he  worked  overtime 
absorbing  the  quips  and  tricks  of  the  business.  He 
was  a  stickler  for  the  little  things.  Nothing  escaped 
him.  He  developed  a  fabulous  memory.  As  soon 
as  he  learned  a  thing,  he  numbered,  labelled  and 


MEN  AROUND  THE  KAISER 


filed  it  away  in  the  well-ordered  archive  which 
serves  him  as  a  brain.  When  he  meets  the  shipping 
magnates  of  Britain,  America,  France,  Holland  and 
Scandinavia  in  conference  nowadays,  he  staggers 
them  with  his  first-hand  knowledge  of  what  others 
mistakenly  consider  the  bagatelles  of  the  game. 
When  the  Hamburg-American  Line  acquired  Ballin, 
along  with  some  minor  assets  in  the  shape  of  emi¬ 
grant  steamers  and  goodwill,  he  brought  to  them, 
ready-made,  the  far-reaching  plans  which  were  to 
make  the  German  merchant  flag  familiar  and  for¬ 
midable  on  the  high  seas. 

The  new  director,  not  yet  out  of  the  impetuous 
twenties,  did  not  find  it  easy  to  impose  his  pro¬ 
gressive  ideas  on  the  Hanseatic  patricians  in  control 
of  the  Hapag.  His  demand  for  twin-screw  steam¬ 
ers  shocked  them.  His  insistence  that  the  day  had 
come  to  give  ocean-travellers  luxuries  instead  of 
mere  comforts  sent  cold  chills  down  their  con¬ 
servative  spines.  Seven-day  boats  seemed  to  them 
as  visionary  as  flying-machines.  Ballin  anticipated 
all  that.  He  bided  his  time.  By  degrees,  almost 
before  they  knew  it,  the  greybeards  of  the  direc¬ 
torate  found  themselves  succumbing  enthusiastically 
to  the  indomitable  will  and  inexhaustible  initiative 
of  their  colleague  of  the  fiery  spirit,  restless  energy 
and  overweening  self-confidence.  They  saw  he 
was  predestined  to  lead.  Gradually  they  gave  him 
full  sway.  In  1900  he  was  appointed  Director- 
General  of  the  entire  organisation.  Since  then  his 
power  has  been  autocratic. 

L4 


B ALLIN 


Ballin’s  plans  for  developing  the  Line  were 
separated  into  two  distinct  divisions.  As  the 
elementary  essential,  he  equipped  it  with  a  fleet 
of  modern  vessels  and  replenished  it  periodically 
with  newer  ships.  He  saw  from  afar  the  approach 
of  the  luxury  age  and  met  it  more  than  halfway. 
He  recognized  the  moral  value  of  the  conquest  of 
the  blue  ribbon  of  the  Atlantic  and  built  the 
Deutschland,  which  captured  it  on  the  New  York- 
Plymouth  route  in  1900,  with  a  passage  of  five  days, 
seven  hours  and  thirty-eight  minutes.  The  North 
German  Lloyd  snatched  the  record  three  years  later, 
but  it  remained  in  German  keeping  until  the 
Lusitania  re-won  it  for  England  in  1907.  Ballin’s 
next  move  was  to  extend  the  services  of  the  Hapag 
until  they  literally  spanned  the  earth.  His  latest 
project  in  that  direction  is  about  to  be  inaugurated — 
a  service  between  the  Eastern  and  Western  coasts 
of  the  United  States  via  the  Panama  Canal.  The 
material  accoutrements  of  a  world-wide  maritime 
organisation  having  been  provided,  Ballin  now  occu¬ 
pied  himself  with  the  no  less  important  question  of 
strategy  and  tactics,  with  that  phase  of  business 
known  as  policy.  In  this  realm,  too,  he  was  destined 
to  display  acumen  and  capacity  of  a  high  order. 
He  early  proclaimed  himself  an  adherent  of  the 
pool  system,  and  helped  to  found  the  North  Atlantic 
Union,  which  still  regulates  Transatlantic  traffic. 
Conciliatory  by  nature,  he  has  always  opposed  rate 
fights  and  other  forms  of  ruinous  competition,  but, 
being  in  them,  has  not  shrunk  from  making  war  to 

15 


MEN  AROUND  THE  KAISER 


the  knife,  as  Liverpool  and  Southampton  know. 
He  was  prompt  to  identify  himself  with  Mr.  Pier- 
pont  Morgan’s  Ocean  Trust  in  1901,  and  has  effected 
numerous  working  agreements  with  English,  Dutch 
and  Scandinavian  competitors. 

Of  the  left-handed  compliments  Lord  Palmer¬ 
ston  was  fond  of  paying  Germany,  none  ever 
left  a  more  burning  sting  than  his  famous  taunt 
that  though  the  Germans  might  till  the  soil  and 
build  castles  in  the  air,  they  had  never,  since  the 
beginning  of  time,  had  the  genius  to  cross  the  high 
seas  or  even  navigate  narrow  waters.  Before 
Palmerston’s  century  ended,  Britain  was  to  recognise 
her  mightiest  rival  in  despised  Germany,  both  in 
the  merchant  trade  and  in  the  naval  realm.  Ballin 
will  tell  you  that  the  Lusitania  and  Mauretania 
themselves  were  Made  in  Germany.  He  means  to 
say  that  Great  Britain,  in  order  to  regain  the 
pre-eminence  which  German  shipping  had  usurped, 
resorted  to  the  policy  of  subsidising  or  semi-subsidis- 
ing  the  Cunard  Line  and  enabling  it  to  build  a  class 
of  vessels  which  no  unassisted  navigation  company 
could  afford  either  to  construct  or  operate.  Ballin  is 
an  uncompromising  foe  of  subsidies  in  whatever 
form  garbed.  He  calls  the  Cunard  giantesses  “hot¬ 
house  plants.”  He  considers  State  subsidies  insidi¬ 
ous,  because  of  the  impulse  they  must  inevitably  give 
the  nations  to  outbid  one  another.  He  says  they 
spell  demoralisation.  Ballin  strongly  advocates  the 
assembling  of  a  conference  to  abolish  shipping 
subsidies  by  International  agreement,  as  was  done 

16 


B ALLI N 


in  the  case  of  sugar  bounties.  He  makes  a  reserva¬ 
tion  with  regard  to  the  United  States.  Ship¬ 
building  is  33  1-3  per  cent,  dearer  there  than  in 
England  or  Germany,  and  he  thinks  the  United 
States  Government  could  justify  a  sane  policy  of 
temporary  subsidies. 

Since  the  Deutschland,  Ballin  has  built  no  fast 
ships.  He  was  frankly  sceptical  of  the  virtues  of 
the  turbine,  but  acknowledges  its  unqualified  success 
in  the  Cunard  flyers.  He  still  inclines  to  the  belief 
that  six  or  seven  days  on  the  Atlantic  is  not  too 
much  for  any  globe-trotter,  but  Ballin  is  not  the 
man  to  rest  content  indefinitely  with  second  place, 
and  it  is  safe  to  predict  that  one  of  these  days  he 
will  again  take  up  the  British  challenge  for  the  speed 
championship. 

In  his  private  life  Ballin  is  modest  to  the  point 
of  shyness  and  seclusion.  Small  of  stature,  his 
bearing  and  ways  are  always  unobtrusive.  He  is 
at  his  office  punctually  every  morning  at  nine  and 
presides  daily  over  a  noon-hour  conference  of  his 
managerial  board.  He  is  a  managing  director 
who  manages  and  directs.  He  is  usually  the  last 
to  leave  after  a  full  day’s  work.  Audiences  of  the 
Shipping  King  are  granted  reluctantly.  More  people 
fail  than  succeed  in  seeing  him.  The  Kaiser  seldom 
comes  to  Hamburg  without  visiting  Ballin’s  unpre¬ 
tentious  suburban  villa  and  showing  some  fresh 
mark  of  his  esteem.  All  doors  are  now  open  to 
Ballin — some  were  once  slammed  and  barred — 
but  his  happiest  hours  are  spent  at  work  or  in  the 

*7, 


MEN  AROUND  THE  KAISER 


bosom  of  his  home.  Herr  and  Frau  Ballin  have 
only  an  adopted  daughter,  married  to  an  ex-naval 
officer,  now  in  the  Hapag  service.  While  she 
lived,  Baffin's  aged  mother  was  the  idol  of  his 
affection.  He  is  a  devout  but  not  a  bigoted  Jew. 
None  of  his  co-religionists  has  a  position  of  conse¬ 
quence  in  his  organisation.  He  does  not  believe 
in  religious  nepotism.  He  has  resolutely  refused  to 
follow  the  fashion  of  plutocratic  German  brethren 
who  embrace  Christianity  for  social  revenue.  It 
annoys  many  German  aristocrats  that  the  Kaiser 
consorts  so  freely  with  a  man  who  is  proud  of  his 
origin.  Still  on  the  sunny  side  of  sixty,  he  has 
many  years  of  usefulness  before  him. 

Two  years  ago  was  the  silver  anniversary  of 
Baffin’s  connection  with  the  Hamburg-American 
Line.  Germans  of  all  classes  are  accustomed  to 
celebrate  jubilees  with  pomp  and  circumstance. 
Hamburg  would  have  delighted  to  honour  its 
favourite  son.  A  week  before  June  2nd,  which 
marked  the  twenty-fifth  anniversary,  Ballin  went 
cruising  in  a  yacht.  He  left  no  address,  and  he 
did  not  return  until  people  had  forgotten  all  about 
his  “  jubilee.”  Then  he  drove  up  to  his  office  one 
day  and  went  back  to  work. 


Ill 


VON  BETHMANN  HOLLWEG 

IMPERIAL  Germany  has  had  five  Chancellors. 
Bismarck,  the  incomparable,  was  a  statesman ; 
Caprivi  and  Hohenlohe,  respectively,  soldier 
and  courtier ;  Billow  was  a  diplomat ;  Bethmann 
Plollweg,  since  1909  the  steersman  of  the  Empire’s 
destinies,  is  a  philosopher.  Four  years  hardly 
afford  an  adequate  basis  for  historical  judgment 
of  a  Premier’s  capacity;  but  Dr.  Theobald  von 
Bethmann  Hollweg’s  Chancellorship  has  been 
uncommonly  barren  of  promise  ever  of  emerging 
from  egregious  mediocrity  into  the  inspiring  light 
of  an  epoch.  Of  him  it  can  well  be  said,  as  Mr. 
Roosevelt  remarked  of  Mr.  Taft  during  the  late 
unpleasantness  in  the  United  States,  that  he  is  a 
man  who  means  well  feebly.  It  has  not  been  given 
to  him  to  accomplish.  During  his  tenancy  of  the 
palace  hallowed  with  memories  of  blood  and  iron, 
the  reign  of  William  II.  has  not  taken  on  fresh 
lustre. 

Before  the  present  Kaiser  had  outgrown  the  age 
of  precocity,  Bismarck  opined  in  a  famous  prog¬ 
nostication:  “This  young  man  will  be  his  own 
Reichskanzler.”  The  Empire-builder  was  doomed 

19 


MEN  AROUND  THE  KAISER 


himself  to  experience  the  relentless  accuracy  of  his 
own  prophecy;  but  never  since  his  first  pilot  was 
dropped  has  William  II.  been  so  much  his  own- 
Chancellor  as  during  the  administration  of  the 
cultured  and  agreeable  bureaucrat  who  is  now  the 
responsible  head  of  the  German  Government  and 
Prussian  Ministry.  There  is  no  manner  of  doubt 
that  Bethmann  Hollweg  enjoys  the  Kaiser’s  “con¬ 
fidence.” 

Were  Dr.  von  Bethmann  Hollweg’s  career  to  be 
terminated  to-day — the  mercies  of  the  German 
Constitution,  which  make  Chancellors  responsible  to 
emperors  and  not  to  Parliaments,  alone  prolong  it — 
the  friendliest  chronicler  could  review  his  Premier¬ 
ship  only  in  negligible  terms.  It  has  been  a  quad- 
rennium  of  innocuousness.  The  “strength”  which 
the  world  associates  with  the  name  of  the  German 
Government  has  been  in  no  sense  derived  of  him. 
In  the  realm  of  foreign  affairs  his  regime  has  been 
distinguished  by  the  fiasco  of  the  wrecked  raid  on 
Morocco.  At  home,  the  philosopher-Chancellor  has 
been  beset  by  political  disaster  and  national  dis¬ 
content.  The  ancient  foe  of  German  Governments, 
Social  Democracy,  thriving  on  popular  revolt  against 
semi-autocratic  rule  and  archaic  electoral  laws,  has 
grown  to  unprecedented  dimensions  and  become 
the  most  powerful  party  in  the  land.  With 
Roman  Catholicism,  the  next  strongest  of  political 
organisations,  Bethmann  Hollweg  is  on  terms  of 
open  hostility.  Conservatism,  the  traditional  prop 
of  Throne  and  Government,  is  ready  to  give  the 

20 


VON  BETHMANN  HOLLWEG 


fifth  Chancellor  the  happy  dispatch  the  moment  he 
dares  to  assail  its  vested  interests;  and  Liberalism, 
or  such  as  remains  of  that  once  virile  element, 
when  not  in  conflict  makes  common  cause  with 
him  reluctantly.  Politically,  he  is  reduced  to  a 
state  of  miserable  isolation. 

Yet  it  would  be  far  beside  the  mark  to  charge 
the  Sage  of  Hohen-Finow  with  utter  lack  of  states¬ 
manlike  qualities.  Modest  and  retiring  by  nature, 
there  is  nothing  of  the  flamboyant  in  his  make-up. 
He  has  undoubtedly  achieved  many  a  victory  by 
methods  more  spectacular  contemporaries  at  home 
and  abroad  are  accustomed  to  shun.  He  is,  above 
all,  thoroughly  sincere  and  honest.  His  influence  is 
always  on  the  side  of  moderation.  The  tricks  and 
traits  of  the  professional  politician  and  diplomat 
are  beneath  him.  He  is  what  in  America  is  known 
as  safe  and  sane.  The  Agadir  adventure,  which 
brought  Europe  to  the  brink  of  war  in  1911,  never 
originated  with  Bethmann  Hollweg.  He  fathered 
it,  as  was  his  Constitutional  duty,  but  nobody  who 
knows  him  doubts  but  that  he  rued  it,  too.  Robber- 
baron  politics  are  no  part  of  his  equipment.  He  is 
an  earnest  apostle  of  peace  and  friendship  with 
England.  His  hand  was  never  meant  to  clench  a 
mailed  fist.  One  cannot  conceivably  imagine  him 
in  the  Bismarckian  role  of  thundering  forth  to  a 
cowering  Europe  that  “We  Germans  fear  God,  and 
nothing  else  in  the  world !’’  One  finds  him  in  a 
more  natural  and  congenial  atmosphere  when 
hurling  philosophic  shrapnel  like  “God-willed 

21 


MEN  AROUND  THE  KAISER 


dependence"  at  a  Prussian  Diet  minority  clamouring 
impotently  for  suffrage  reform.  Germany  lost  a 
great  schoolmaster  when  Bethmann  Hollweg  chose 
politics  for  a  career.  He  has  been  called  the 
incarnation  of  passionate  doctrinarianism. 

When  Bethmann  Hollweg  was  elevated  to  the 
Imperial  Chancellorship,  his  appointment  was  hailed 
as  that  of  a  “Kaiser  man” — the  type  of  official 
supposed  to  be  peculiarly  after  the  heart  of  William 
of  Plohenzollern.  They  had  been  at  university 
together  at  Bonn,  and  the  sentimental  ties  which 
have  always  united  the  Kaiser  to  his  fellow-students 
kept  the  young  bureaucrat  fresh  in  his  Sovereign’s 
memory.  As  Prince  Billow’s  Vice-Chancellor, 
Bethmann  Hollweg  had  long  been  a  logical  can¬ 
didate  for  the  Chancellorship.  His  selection  became 
a  foregone  conclusion  from  the  moment  Prince 
Biilow,  in  response  to  the  Kaiser’s  invitation, 
nominated  him  as  his  successor. 

The  new  Chancellor  had  had  a  distinguished 
official  career,  and  had  risen  by  legitimate  steps  to 
Prime  Ministerial  rank,  but  was  a  little-known 
personality.  The  type  of  a  Prussian  bureaucrat,  who 
began  as  assessor,  rose  to  county  supervisor,  became 
a  provincial  president,  then  a  Prussian  Minister,  and 
later  an  Imperial  Secretary  of  State,  his  advance 
through  the  stereotyped  grades  of  German  official¬ 
dom  was  steady  and  characteristic.  Self-effacing  by 
temperament,  he  never  intruded  himself  into  the 
glare  of  public  notice.  His  administrative  career 
was  marked  by  a  studious  restriction  to  routine 

22 


VON  BETHMANN  HOLLWEG 


duties.  His  speeches  in  the  Prussian  Diet  and  House 
of  Peers,  and  in  the  Reichstag  were  distinguished 
for  nothing  but  straightforwardness,  sincerity  and 
thoroughness.  He  was  never  once  known  to 
electrify  the  country  or  Parliament.  But  he  won  a 
reputation  in  the  governing  set  for  honesty,  con¬ 
servatism,  and  loyalty,  and  those  are  qualities  which 
have  gone  far  to  compensate  the  Fatherland  for 
the  brilliancy  of  Prince  Biilow. 

Dr.  von  Bethmann  Plollweg’s  official  career  has 
lain  far  remote  from  the  paths  of  diplomacy  and 
foreign  affairs.  His  have  been  the  prosaic  problems 
of  local  government  and  home  administration — 
fields  in  which  he  is  almost  without  a  peer  among  his 
countrymen.  He  approached  the  task  of  directing 
Germany’s  Weltpolitik,  therefore,  an  utter  novice. 
Before  he  was  Chancellor  a  year  the  Kaiser  prac¬ 
tically  withdrew  foreign  affairs  from  Bethmann 
Hollweg's  hands,  to  transfer  them  to  the  experienced 
control  of  Herr  von  Kiderlen-Wachter. 

The  Chancellor  is  a  born  Brandenburger,  a  native 
of  Hohen-Finow,  a  village  in  the  Mark,  three- 
quarters  of  an  hour  west  of  Berlin.  He  is  fifty- 
seven  years  old.  His  family,  ennobled  in  1840,  is 
an  old-time  Frankfort  merchant  and  banking 
dynasty,  pre-eminent  in  finance  in  the  ante-Roth- 
schild  era.  Originally  it  consisted  of  two  branches, 
Bethmann  and  Hollweg,  which  became  united  under 
a  single  name  through  intermarriage.  The  founder 
of  the  Bethmann  branch  was  driven  from  Holland 
in  the  seventeenth  century  on  account  of  his 

23 


a  MEN  AROUND  THE  KAISER 


religion.  Chancellor  von  Bethmann  Hollweg’s 
grandfather  was  the  first  of  the  family  to  identify 
himself  with  public  life.  An  excellent  lawyer,  he 
became  a  professor  of  jurisprudence  at  Bonn 
University,  receiving  the  patent  of  nobility  as  a 
mark  of  distinction  for  his  learning.  As  a  member 
of  the  Prussian  Legislature  in  the  ’forties,  he  was 
in  the  thick  of  the  constitutional  struggles  which 
had  their  culmination  in  1848,  and  ten  years  later 
he  became  Minister  of  Education  in  a  Liberal 
Cabinet.  From  this  hardy  stock,  a  sterling  mixture 
of  traders,  bankers,  scholars  and  politicians,  the 
Kaiser  chose  his  fifth  Chancellor. 

After  leaving  Bonn  University  young  Von  Beth¬ 
mann  Hollweg  took  the  State  examination  for  the 
Civil  Service,  mounting  the  first  rung  on  the  bureau¬ 
cratic  ladder,  that  of  an  “Assessorship,”  in  1885. 
In  1899  the  Emperor  promoted  his  college  friend 
to  the  high  post  of  President  of  the  Government 
of  Bromberg,  and  within  three  months  advanced 
him  still  another  grade  by  making  him  President  of 
the  province  of  Brandenburg,  with  headquarters  at 
Potsdam,  where  he  was  once  again  to  enjoy  the 
comradeship  of  his  imperial  patron.  The  Presidency 
of  Brandenburg  is  a  stepping-stone  to  Ministerial 
honours  in  Prussia,  and  1905  brought  Von  Beth¬ 
mann  Hollweg  the  traditional  distinction  in  the 
shape  of  appointment  as  Prussian  Home  Secretary. 
Two  years  later  the  Kaiser  promoted  him  to  a  place 
in  the  Imperial  Government  as  Secretary  of  the 
Imperial  Home  Office,  the  position  which  carries 

24 


VON  BETHMANN  HOLLWEG 


with  it  the  additional  rank  of  Vice-Chancellor  and 
Vice-President  of  the  Prussian  Ministry. 

In  all  these  offices  Von  Bethmann  Hollweg  dis¬ 
tinguished  himself  by  zeal,  industry,  and  capacity. 
His  devotion  to  Prince  von  Biilow  was  a  marked 
feature  of  his  Ministerial  career.  The  late  Chan¬ 
cellor  was  accustomed  frequently  to  entrust  Von 
Bethmann  Hollweg  with  his  representation  in 
critical  parliamentary  and  political  situations,  and 
their  personal  relations  were  intimate  and  con¬ 
fidential.  As  a  parliamentary  figure  Von  Bethmann 
Hollweg  is  not  striking,  but  always  impressive.  He 
is  far  less  showy  than  Biilow,  but  more  convincing 
and  thorough.  Germany  misses  Billow’s  raillery, 
but  gets  in  its  stead  plain  speaking  and  the  wit  that 
springs  from  brevity.  Amiable  and  philosophic, 
immensely  tall  and  gaunt,  with  lofty  forehead, 
bespectacled,  and  professorial  in  manner,  Von  Beth¬ 
mann  Hollweg  never  fails  to  dominate  when  on  his 
feet,  though  he  commands  attention  not  by  fire  and 
force  so  much  as  by  soundness  and  lucidity. 

Modern  Germany  is  ripe  for  a  statesman  capable 
of  leading  its  aspirations  for  true  political  liberty. 
To  his  standard  would  flock  supporters  as  fervent 
as  those  who  rallied  around  Bismarck,  when  he  per¬ 
ceived  and  proceeded  to  gratify  German  longings 
for  national  unity.  It  is  a  strange  phenomenon 
that  a  man  of  Bethmann  Hollweg’s  singular  high¬ 
mindedness  and  rugged  integrity,  who  has  so  deep 
a  sense  of  personal  injustice  as  to  be  melted  to 
tears  by  heartless  Opposition  caricatures,  should 

25 

J 


MEN  AROUND  THE  KAISER 


remain  blind  to  the  signs  of  the  times  in  the  pro¬ 
gressive  age  of  his  progressive  people.  He  entered 
office  as  the  heir  of  a  humiliating  Government  defeat 
at  the  hands  of  the  Conservative-Catholic  oligarch)'-, 
which  still  holds  the  reins  of  parliamentary  power 
in  Germany.  Whether  through  inability  or  disin¬ 
clination,  Bethmann  Hollweg  has  signally  failed  to 
emancipate  himself  from  the  shackles  of  the  “Black 
and  Blue”  alliance  which  dethroned  Prince  Billow 
and  stands  for  reaction. 

Meantime,  public  opinion  identifies  him  with  the 
caste  which  stubbornly  withholds  from  enlightened 
Germany  that  great  ideal  of  all  genuinely  liberated 
nations — parliamentary  institutions  and  truly  repre¬ 
sentative  government.  It  has  been  said  that  they 
will  not  be  attained  until  the  streets  of  Berlin  have 
run  red  with  proletariat  blood.  In  that  dread  hour, 
if  Bethmann,  as  he  is  called,  be  still  at  the  helm, 
history  will  not  acquit  the  philosopher-chancellor  of 
the  consequences. 


IV 


PRINCE  FURSTENBERG 


IS  Serene  Highness  Prince  Maximilian 
Egon  zu  Fiirstenberg,  a  German- Austrian 
grand  seigneur  and  multi-millionaire,  is 
the  power  behind  the  German  throne.  No  man 
rivals  his  influence  in  exalted  quarters.  Few  have 
ever  enjoyed  the  confidence  of  William  II.  to  even 
an  approximate  extent.  Himself  of  ancient  noble 
lineage,  Prince  Fiirstenberg  is  the  one  subject  whom 
the  Kaiser  treats  as  an  equal,  and  his  counsel  has 
been  known  to  prevail  over  that  of  Chancellors  and 
Ministers  of  State. 

Prince  Fiirstenberg  is  far  removed  from  the 
stereotyped  wirepuller  of  royal  romance,  spinning 
sinister  plots  behind  a  puppet-monarch's  throne. 
He  is  the  Kaiser's  boon  companion,  the  partner  of 
his  joys  and  comrade  of  his  sorrows,  the  friend  to 
whom  the  Sovereign  turned  in  the  darkest  hour  of 


his  reign,  when  Germany  rocked  with  indignation 
during  the  “personal  regime”  crisis  provoked  by  the 
Daily  Telegraph  incident  of  November,  1908. 

Repeatedly  the  Kaiser  has  urged  his  plutocratic 
crony  to  become  his  Imperial  Chancellor,  to  ex- 

27 


MEN  AROUND  THE  KAISER 


change  the  role  of  best  friend  for  that  of  the 
Crown’s  first  and  responsible  adviser.  With  a  reali¬ 
sation  of  his  limitations  which  does  him  credit, 
Prince  Fiirstenberg  has  steadfastly  refused  to  accept 
the  burdens  of  office.  His  only  official  rank  is  the 
august,  but  purely  decorative  and  ceremonial  one  of 
Colonel-Marshal  of  the  Prussian  Court,  a  title  in¬ 
vented  in  his  honour.  He  could  call  himself  Court 
Brewer  besides,  if  he  desired,  for  an  advertising 
legend  spread  far  and  wide  relates  that  “Fiirstenberg 
Beer” — the  product  of  His  Serene  Highness’ 
brewery  in  the  Black  Forest — is  “the  special  table 
drink  of  His  Majesty  the  Kaiser  and  King.” 

The  Kaiser’s  fondness  for  Prince  Fiirstenberg  is 
sometimes  ascribed  to  the  fact  that  the  Prince  is 
a  captain  of  industry  on  a  gigantic  scale.  In 
association  with  a  distant  cousin  of  His  Majesty, 
Prince  Christian  Kraft  zu  Hohenlohe-Oehringen, 
Prince  Fiirstenberg  heads  a  combination  disposing 
over  resources  aggregating  $500,000,000  of  capital. 
The  partnership  has  been  christened  “The  Princes 
Trust,”  for  its  octopus-like  ramifications  are  com¬ 
parable  to  the  colossal  communities  of  interest 
which  the  late  Mr.  Pierpont  Morgan  and  the  other 
money-kings  of  Wall  Street  have  made  famous. 
The  Princes  Trust  is  a  force  in  the  German  finan¬ 
cial  world,  and  its  exalted  connections  make  it  a 
power  to  be  reckoned  with  when  it  inaugurates  one 
of  its  periodical  campaigns  of  conquest.  Prince 
Furstenberg’s  personal  fortune  has  been  estimated 
at  $100,000,000;  Prince  Hohenlohe-Oehringen’s  at 

28 


PRINCE  FURSTENBERG 


$50,000,000.  Five  years  ago  their  various  interests 
were  pooled  and  have  since  expanded  to  incalculable 
dimensions.  To-day  the  Trust  owns  or  controls 
hotels-de-luxe,  department-stores,  theatres,  restau¬ 
rants  and  omnibus  lines  in  Berlin  and  Hamburg, 
vast  coal-briquette,  zinc  and  potash  mines  in 
Rhineland  and  Silesia,  sanatoria  and  gambling- 
palaces  in  Madeira,  tens  of  thousands  of  acres  of 
farming  and  forest  lands  in  Germany  and  Austria, 
and  a  great  realty  and  building  syndicate  in  Berlin. 
Overseas,  the  Trust’s  activities  find  outlet  in  the 
ownership  of  the  German  Palestine  Bank,  with 
important  railway  and  commercial  concessions  in 
the  Holy  Land,  and  it  wrested  control  of  the  Ger¬ 
man  Levant  Line  from  influential  shipping  interests 
at  Hamburg.  The  first  check  encountered  by  the 
Princes  Trust  in  its  all-conquering  career  was  its 
recent  failure  to  secure  a  charter  for  converting 
Emden,  on  the  North  Sea,  into  a  great  emigrant 
harbour,  from  which  it  was  proposed  to  establish  a 
Transatlantic  steamship  service  to  rival  the  rich 
business  long  monopolised  by  the  Hamburg-Ameri- 
can  and  North  German  Lloyd.  The  hand  of 
Herr  Alfred  Ballin,  the  Shipping  King,  another 
friend  of  the  Kaiser,  was  seen  in  the  rebuff  adminis¬ 
tered  to  the  Princes’  designs  on  Emden.  For  the 
nonce  it  looked  as  if  Fiirstenberg’s  influence  with 
his  Imperial  chum  was  no  longer  omnipotent. 

Prince  Furstenberg  owns  allegiance  to  no  fewer 
than  four  different  monarchies — Prussia,  Austria, 
Wurtemberg  and  Baden — and  holds  hereditary 

29 


MEN  AROUND  THE  KAISER 

seats  in  the  House  of  Peers  of  each  of  them.  Fifty 
years  old  and  a  Roman  Catholic,  his  unique  inter¬ 
national  status,  colossal  wealth  and  royal  connections 
make  him  one  of  the  most  remarkable  and  potent 
figures  in  contemporary  Europe. 

A  striking  mixture  of  romantic  medievalism  and 
modern  progressiveness,  Prince  Furstenberg  is  very 
much  a  man  after  the  Kaiser’s  heart.  Soldier,  poet, 
artist,  musician,  sportsman  and  archaeologist,  he 
presents  the  kaleidoscopic  nature  surest  of  endearing 
itself  to  the  versatile  William.  Unknown  to  the 
country  at  large  ten  years  ago,  the  Prince,  still 
called  “Max”  by  his  comrades  of  former  days  in 
Prague  and  Vienna,  has  made  his  blunt  personality 
and  unselfish  counsel  so  invaluable  to  Emperor 
William  that  there  is  now  hardly  an  important  act 
of  statecraft  to  which  the  Kaiser  commits  himself 
without  the  advice  of  the  friend  with  whom  His 
Majesty  exchanges  the  intimate  and  affectionate 
German  greeting  of  Du.  It  speaks  volumes  for 
Prince  Fiirstenberg’s  astuteness  and  qualities  of 
self-effacement  that  he  has  succeeded  in  remaining 
effectually  behind  the  scenes.  No  one  ever  catches 
a  glimpse  of  him  in  the  limelight.  His  strength 
with  the  Kaiser  is  based  primarily  on  his  incor¬ 
rigible  habit  of  telling  His  Majesty  the  brutal 
truth,  and  dealing  with  him  in  a  spirit  of  frank 
outspokenness  no  mere  subject-counsellor  would 
dare  employ. 

Prince  Fiirstenberg  was  born  at  Lana,  in 
Bohemia,  in  1863,  the  scion  of  an  ancient  noble 

30 


PRINCE  FURSTENBERG 


house  which  proudly  traces  its  lineage  back  to  the 
twelfth  century  and  to  one  of  Emperor  Charle¬ 
magne’s  paladins.  The  Furstenbergs  of  the  early 
Middle  Ages  lived  in  the  Black  Forest.  They  re¬ 
ceived  the  rank  of  Princes  from  Emperor  Franz  I. 
in  1753.  Generation  after  generation  of  them  pro¬ 
duced  brilliant  statesmen  and  soldiers,  so  that  the 
present  Prince  is  not  departing  from  family  tradi¬ 
tions  in  serving  at  the  confidential  elbow  of  a  Kaiser. 

Graduated  from  the  aristocratic  Rhine  university 
of  Bonn,  where  Emperor  William  studied,  Prince 
Fiirstenberg  passed  his  early  life  in  Vienna  and 
Prague,  and  on  the  family’s  various  estates,  gratify¬ 
ing  a  passion  for  hunting  and  other  tastes  of  his 
caste.  Inheriting  seats  in  the  upper  chambers 
of  Austria,  Prussia,  Wurtemberg  and  Baden,  the 
Prince  interested  himself  actively  in  politics  before 
he  was  thirty.  In  1892  he  attracted  attention  to 
himself  by  a  stirring  speech  in  the  Reichsrat 
advocating  German  nationalism  in  Austria.  Later 
he  became  vice-president  of  the  Austrian  House  of 
Peers  and  one  of  the  recognised  political  leaders  of 
the  monarchy.  As  head  of  the  Constitutionalists 
or  German-Austrian  Liberals,  he  never  misses  an 
opportunity  of  espousing  the  claims  of  Austro- 
Germans,  especially  the  Bohemian  element,  from 
which  he  himself  is  sprung. 

In  1896,  through  the  death  of  his  cousin,  Karl 
Egon,  Prince  Maximilian  Egon  became  the  titular 
head  of  the  House  of  Fiirstenberg  and  holder  of 
its  enormous  estates.  Comparatively  poor  before, 

3i 


MEN  AROUND  THE  KAISER 


the  Prince  was  now  enabled  to  play  a  glittering  role 
in  aristocratic  society  in  both  Germany  and  Austria. 
His  castles  at  Lana  and  Prague,  his  town  houses 
in  Vienna  and  Karlsruhe,  and  his  wondrously 
magnificent  and  extensive  shooting  preserves  and 
estates  at  Donau-Eschingen,  in  the  Black  Forest, 
at  the  source  of  the  Blue  Danube,,  became  the 
scenes  of  sumptuous  hospitality,  outri vailing  the 
entertainments  of  Kings  and  Emperors.  Several 
sojourns  a  year  at  Donau-Eschingen  figure  regu¬ 
larly  in  the  itinerary  of  the  Kaiser.  It  is  there  he 
likes  most  to  seek  rest  and  relaxation.  There  he 
interned  himself,  surrounded  by  his  nearest  and 
dearest,  while  the  Fatherland  was  fuming  over  the 
indiscretions  of  the  Daily  Telegraph  interview. 
There,  comforted  by  the  sympathetic  counsel  of 
Prince  “Max,”  he  remained  in  congenial  seclusion 
till  the  storm  of  the  nation’s  wrath  had  spent  its 
force. 

Prince  Furstenberg  usurped  in  the  Kaiser’s 
esteem  the  place  of  honour  formerly  held  by  Prince 
Philip  zu  Eulenburg,  the  deposed  and  disgraced 
courtier-diplomat  who  formerly  headed  the  “inner 
round  table”  of  William  II.  When  Prince  Eulen- 
burg’s  sun  had  set,  in  consequence  of  the  Harden 
exposures,  and  the  Squire  of  Liebenberg  was  ban¬ 
ished  from  the  Imperial  entourage,  Prince  Fiirsten- 
berg  stepped  naturally  into  the  fallen  favourite’s 
place.  His  rise  in  power  and  influence  from  that 
moment  forth  was  meteoric. 

In  November,  1907,  while  the  Kaiser  was  recuper- 
32 


PRINCE  FtJRSTENBERG 


ating  in  England,  the  German  newspapers  published 
the  laconic  announcement  that  Prince  Fiirstenberg 
had  left  for  Castle  Highcliffe  at  the  Emperor’s 
telegraphic  summons.  German  political  life  at  the 
moment  was  electric  with  fear  and  trembling  as 
the  result  of  the  Moltke-Eulenburg  scandals.  Prince 
Billow’s  Chancellorship  was  tottering  under  dis¬ 
tracting  parliamentary  difficulty.  Fiirstenberg  was 
heralded  as  the  coming  man.  It  was  asserted  with 
positiveness  that  the  Kaiser  had  invited  him  to 
Highcliffe,  to  urge  him  to  hurl  himself  into  the 
breach  and  take  the  Chancellorship  from  which 
Biilow  was  threatening  to  resign.  The  Prince 
resisted  all  entreaties,  but  returned  from  England 
an  irrevocable  factor  in  German  high  politics  for 
all  time. 

Since  Highcliffe,  Prince  Fiirstenberg  has  seldom 
been  missing  from  the  Emperor’s  entourage  on 
important  occasions.  He  helped  the  Kaiser  christen 
the  new  German  Navy  at  Wilhelmshaven  in  March, 
1908,  when  His  Majesty’s  first  Dreadnought,  the 
Nassau,  was  launched.  A  week  later  Fiirstenberg 
accompanied  the  Emperor  to  Heligoland  to  inspect 
the  initial  preparations  for  converting  that  crum¬ 
bling  isle  into  a  Teuton  Gibraltar.  A  fortnight 
afterwards  the  Prince  joined  the  Kaiser  at  Corfu, 
which  they  visit  together  almost  annually.  Each 
year,  after  the  Ionian  sun  has  browned  the  Imperial 
countenance  for  a  few  weeks,  it  is  at  Prince  Fiir- 
stenberg’s  glorious  shooting-box  at  Donau-Eschin- 
gen  that  William  II.  tarries  before  resuming 

33 


MEN  AROUND  THE  KAISER 

Imperial  duties  at  Berlin.  In  addition  to  his  other 
endearing  qualities,  Prince  Fiirstenberg  is  a  capital 
story-teller  and  keen  wit.  Some  of  the  Kaiser’s 
happiest  hours  are  spent  listening  to  “Maxchen’s” 
inimitable  yarn  spinning,  amusingly  interlarded 
with  Austrian  and  South  German  dialect. 

In  his  wife,  who  was  a  Countess  von  Schonborn- 
Buchheim,  one  of  a  trio  of  Austrian  sisters  cele¬ 
brated  for  their  beauty,  Prince  Fiirstenberg  has  an 
able  lieutenant  in  the  unofficial  but  responsible  post 
of  the  Kaiser’s  best  friend. 


V 


GWINNER 

IT  is  natural  that  the  race  which  produced  the 
Rothschilds  should  be  richly  endowed  with 
financial  genius.  Germany  of  to-day  is  gen¬ 
erously  supplied  with  men  worthy  of  the  traditions 
of  the  Five  Frankforters.  Berlin  is  not  the  world- 
money  Mecca  the  South  German  metropolis  was 
in  the  Napoleonic  era — the  Kaiser’s  capital  has 
latterly  been  almost  more  of  a  borrower  than  a 
lender — but  her  importance  in  the  universe  of  high 
finance  is  great  and  growing.  The  firmness  or 
weakness  of  the  Berlin  money  market  and  Stock 
Exchange,  though  not  yet  of  the  barometric  influ¬ 
ence  of  Wall  Street,  is  nevertheless  a  factor  which 
London,  New  York  and  Paris  require  increasingly 
to  take  into  account.  It  would  no  longer  be  possible 
for  the  Bank  of  England,  J.  P.  Morgan  &  Co.,  and 
the  Credit  Lyonnais  to  parcel  out  the  earth  between 
them.  Wherever  they  turned,  they  would  find  a 
solid,  assertive  German  institution  in  the  field,  de¬ 
manding  a  place  in  the  financial  sun.  Its  name  is 
the  Deutsche  Bank. 

Germany  has  nine  great  banks  with  capital 
ranging  from  $15,000,000  to  $50,000,000  apiece, 
and  several  private  concerns  of  international  renown 

35 


MEN  AROUND  THE  KAISER 


and  immense  resources  like  the  Mendelssohns  and 
Bleichroeders.  The  list  of  financial  luminaries  of 
the  first  magnitude  include  such  men  as  Carl 
Fiirstenberg,  Paul  von  Schwabach,  Paul  Mankie- 
witz,  Baron  Oppenheim  of  Cologne,  the  Speyers  of 
Frankfort,  the  Warburgs  of  Hamburg,  Eugen 
Gutman  and  Arthur  Salomonsohn,  each  a  host  in 
himself,  and  the  representative  of  enormous  inter¬ 
ests.  The  leadership,  however,  belongs  by  common 
consent  to  the  Deutsche  Bank.  It  is  from  its  vast 
counting-house  in  Berlin  that  the  conquering  march 
of  German  capital  in  two  hemispheres  is  mainly 
directed.  It  is  the  Reichsbank,  Imperial  Germany’s 
central  bank  of  issue,  which  regulates  the  discount 
rate  and  keeps  the  currency  mobile  and  liquid,  but 
it  is  the  Deutsche  Bank  which  pioneers  and  finances 
German  enterprise  oversea.  At  home  its  power 
is  comparable  only  to  that  of  the  Government  itself. 
With  an  annual  turnover  which  has  risen  since  the 
Bank’s  foundation  from  $60,000,000  to  $32,500,- 
000,000,  it  has  come  to  wield  a  mighty  influence 
over  German  economic  life. 

Though  he  himself  denies  it,  Arthur  von  Gwinner, 
the  type  of  the  German  financier  of  the  period,  is  the 
presiding  genius  of  the  institution.  It  seems  more 
than  an  alphabetical  coincidence  that  his  name  heads 
the  list  of  the  Deutsche  Bank’s  directors.  Once  in 
a  while  a  new  director  is  elected,  but  there  is  appar¬ 
ently  an  unwritten  by-law  providing  that  nobody 
should  ever  be  chosen  whose  name  begins  with  a 
letter  in  advance  of  G.  Gwinner  describes  himself 

36 


GWINNER 


as  “a  simple  member  of  the  managerial  board.” 
Germany  and  the  world,  nevertheless,  associate  his 
name  with  most  of  the  big  strokes  the  Deutsche 
Bank  periodically  accomplishes.  When  the  Kaiser, 
as  he  has  more  than  once  done,  tries  to  persuade 
Gwinner  to  enter  the  Cabinet  and  assume  either 
the  Prussian  Ministership  of  Finance,  or  the 
Secretaryship  of  the  Imperial  Treasury,  His  Majesty 
directs  his  appeal  to  the  man  looked  upon  as  the 
premier  banker  of  the  realm.  Gwinner  is  an  ardent 
patriot,  but,  like  Ballin,  he  thinks  he  can  render 
the  Fatherland  more  effective  service  by  sticking  to 
his  last  than  by  taking  office. 

The  Deutsche  Bank  may  be  called  twin  to  the 
Empire.  It  was  established  in  1870,  almost  at  the 
very  hour  Bismarck  and  Moltke  went  to  war  with 
France.  No  other  institution’s  rise  has  been  so 
coincident  with  the  economic  development  of 
Germany  itself.  The  Deutsche  Bank’s  year-by-year 
growth  from  small  beginnings  to  its  present  dimen¬ 
sions  is  Germany  in  composite.  Industry  in  the 
Fatherland  is  more  intimately  allied  to,  and  inter¬ 
woven  with,  banking  capital  than  anywhere  else  in 
the  world.  To  an  inordinate  extent  the  industrial 
fabric  rests  on  credit.  In  many  cases  the  banks 
exercise  autocratic  domination  over  the  manu¬ 
facturing,  mining  and  shipping  trades.  Vast  blocks 
of  their  capital  are  tied  up  in  purely  industrial 
undertakings.  Foreign  financiers  are  sceptical  of 
the  soundness  of  this  interlocking  alliance  between 
banks  and  industry,  but  it  has  justified  itself  to 

37 


MEN  AROUND  THE  KAISER 


the  extent  of  making  possible  Germany’s  present- 
day  formidableness  in  the  world’s  markets. 

The  founder  of  the  Deutsche  Bank  was  the  late 
Georg  von  Siemens,  whose  name  will  be  indelibly 
inscribed  in  the  inspiring  story  of  Germany’s  vault 
to  weltmacht.  He  was  a  member  of  the  family 
which  has  given  the  German  electrical  industry 
international  fame.  It  was  vouchsafed  Siemens’ 
far-seeing  policy  to  make  the  Deutsche  Bank  the 
first  institution  to  carry  German  capital  abroad  and 
stake  out  Germany’s  ambitious  claims  for  a  share  of 
oversea  commerce.  It  was  he  who  secured  the 
concession  for  the  Anatolian  railways  in  1888,  which 
were  to  blaze  the  way  for  German  supremacy  in 
what  now  remains  of  the  Turkish  Empire.  Arthur 
Gwinner  was  his  pupil  and  understudy.  When 
Siemens  was  removed  from  the  scene  in  1901, 
Gwinner  became  his  successor.  In  March,  1903, 
Gwinner  obtained  the  Baghdad  Railway  concession 
from  Sultan  Abdul  Hamid,  and,  in  the  capacity 
of  President  of  the  Anatolian  and  Baghdad  Railway 
Companies,  assumed  supreme  control  of  both  prop¬ 
erties.  To-day  they  represent  a  German  invest¬ 
ment  of  $80,000,000.  The  Anatolian  lines  begin 
at  Haidar  Pasha,  on  the  Asiatic  side  of  Con¬ 
stantinople,  and  run  to  Eskishehir,  where  there  is 
a  bifurcation  eastwards  to  Angora — Ankyra  of  the 
Ancients.  St.  Paul’s  epistle  to  the  Galatians  was 
addressed  to  Ankyra,  the  capital  of  Galatia.  From 
Eskishehir  the  railway  runs  south-easterly  to  Konia 
— Ikonium  of  the  Ancients,  capital  of  the  Seljuk 

38 


GWINNER 


dynasty  which  preceded  the  Osman  house  now 
enthroned  at  the  Golden  Horn.  It  was  from  Konia 
that  Cicero,  banished,  wrote  to  a  Roman  friend  that 
there  were  more  asses  in  the  country  than  men. 
Some  day,  if  Gwinner  has  his  way,  there  will  be 
more  Germans  there  than  Turks.  The  Anatolian 
lines  have  a  total  length  of  six  hundred  and  fifty 
miles.  The  Baghdad  system,  which  begins  where 
the  Anatolian  Railway  ends,  is  to  extend  from 
Konia  across  country  to  the  Persian  Gulf.  Three 
hundred  and  fifty  miles  of  it  are  already  built  and 
opened  to  traffic;  something  over  625  are  under 
construction,  or  to  be  constructed,  as  far  as 
Baghdad.  A  branch  is  to  be  built  to  Alexandretta, 
on  the  Mediterranean,  where  Alexander  the  Great 
overwhelmed  the  Persian  Emperor  in  the  battle  on 
the  banks  of  the  River  Issus,  333  b.  c.  Construc¬ 
tion  between  Baghdad  and  the  Persian  Gulf  is  not 
yet  commenced.  It  is  this  strip  which  is  the  bone 
of  contention  between  Germany  and  Great  Britain. 
Germany’s  insistence  on  the  right  to  construct  and 
control  the  terminal  undoubtedly  contains  the  seeds 
of  a  grave  conflict.  Englishmen  may  be  excused 
for  not  relishing  the  spectre  of  a  short  cut  to  India 
over  a  trans-European-Asiatic  trunk-line,  German- 
owned  and  German-operated,  which  reduces  the  sea- 
route  to  India  ten  days,  and  might  conceivably  bring 
German  armies  to  the  gates  of  Delhi  before  British 
Dreadnoughts  could  reach  Bombay. 

Gwinner,  it  may  be  assumed,  is  not  building  the 
Baghdad  Railway  for  the  purposes  of  the  German 

39 


MEN  AROUND  THE  KAISER 


General  Staff.  What  chiefly  keeps  him  awake  of 
nights  is  how  to  extract  dividends  from  it  for  the 
Deutsche  Bank,  and  how  best  to  promote  the 
golden  opportunities  which  await  the  strategists  of 
the  German  trading  army  in  the  Near  East.  He 
made  a  poetic  confession  of  the  prophetic  ideals 
he  cherishes  at  Baghdad  by  quoting  Faust  at  the 
conclusion  of  a  striking  article  in  the  Nineteenth 
Century  for  June,  1909: — 

“To  many  millions  space  I  thus  should  give, 

Though  not  secure,  yet  free  to  toil  and  live ; 

Green  fields  and  fertile;  men,  with  cattle  blent. 

Upon  the  newest  earth  would  dwell  content. 

Settled  forthwith  upon  the  firm-based  hill, 

Uplifted  by  a  valiant  people’s  skill; 

Within  a  land  like  Paradise.” 

Like  all  the  big  captains  of  German  business, 
Gwinner  believes  that  the  $375,000,000  or 
$400,000,000  a  year  which  Germany  spends  on  the 
upkeep  of  her  Army  and  Navy — she  is  spending 
over  $575,000,000  in  1913 — is  not  too  high  a  price 
to  pay  for  the  defence  of  national  honour  or  for  an 
insurance  premium  on  a  foreign  trade  aggregating 
roundly  $5,000,000,000  per  annum.  If  Gwinner 
were  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer,  it  seems  fairly 
clear  that  German  finances  would  not  be  distin¬ 
guished  by  the  chronic  chaos  in  which  they  have 
long  wallowed.  His  maiden  speech  in  the  House 
of  Peers,  to  which  the  Kaiser  elevated  him  in  1910, 
consisted  of  a  fearless  and  sweeping  attack  on  the 
administration  of  Prussian  finances.  He  advocated 

40 


GWINNER 


the  policy  of  State  Railway  loans  as  the  most 
obvious  and  legitimate  source  of  extraordinary 
national  revenue.  Taking  the  Pennsylvania  Rail¬ 
way  as  an  example,  he  declared  that  if  that  great 
system  were  conducted  on  the  lines  of  Prussia’s 
richly  productive  State  railways,  it  would  long 
since  have  gone  into  the  hands  of  a  receiver. 
Baron  von  Rheinbaben,  the  Prussian  Minister  of 
Finance,  retired  from  office  shortly  after  Gwinner’s 
onslaught. 

Gwinner  sniffed  banking  and  finance  from  the 
cradle,  for  his  birthplace  was  Frankfort-on-the- 
Main,  at  the  time — 1856 — still  very  much  of  an 
international  money  centre.  His  father  was  a 
distinguished  jurist  and  intimate  friend  of  Schopen¬ 
hauer  and  was  the  executor  of  the  philosopher’s 
estate,  as  well  as  his  biographer.  He  is  still  alive, 
and  in  1909  received  from  the  Kaiser  the  patent  of 
hereditary  nobility.  It  is  popularly  understood 
that  the  distinction  was  meant  to  be  conferred  in 
reality  on  the  son,  who  became  entitled  simul¬ 
taneously  to  be  known  henceforth  as  von  Gwinner. 
The  year  1884  found  young  Gwinner  in  Government 
service  as  German  Consul  at  Madrid.  In  1885  he 
contracted  a  matrimonial  alliance  with  one  of  the 
leading  financial  houses  of  Europe  and  America 
by  marrying  the  daughter  of  Philipp  Speyer  of 
Frankfort-on-the-Main.  Three  years  later  he  estab¬ 
lished  the  private  banking-house  of  Arthur  Gwinner 
&  Co.,  in  Berlin,  remaining  at  its  head  until  1894, 
when  he  was  invited  by  Georg  von  Siemens  to  join 

41 


\ 


MEN  AROUND  THE  KAISER 


the  directorate  of  the  Deutsche  Bank.  He  had  early 
opportunity  to  prove  his  capacity,  when  in  1896 
the  Deutsche  Bank  undertook  the  reorganization 
of  the  Northern  Pacific  Railway  on  behalf  of 
European  shareholders.  That  astutely  executed 
transaction,  from  which  investors  eventually 
emerged  without  loss,  was  carried  out  by  Siemens 
and  his  able  young  lieutenant,  in  conjunction  with 
Henry  Villard  of  New  York.  It  was  the  first 
feather  in  Gwinner’s  cap,  destined  to  be  garnished 
with  many. 

Gwinner’s  talent  is  essentially  for  big  things. 
He  is  a  banker  of  large  conceptions.  The  Deutsche 
Bank  owns  the  Berlin  underground  and  elevated 
railway  system,  but  it  is  not  in  Gwinner’s  depart^ 
ment.  He  deals  only  with  railways  calculable 
in  thousands  of  miles,  like  the  Northern  Pacific  and 
Baghdad  systems.  Plis  latest  project  in  monumental 
finance  is  the  scheme  to  create  a  State  monopoly 
in  petroleum  to  break  the  autocratic  power  of  the 
Standard  Oil  Company  in  Germany.  The  Deutsche 
Bank  is  interested  in  oil  properties  in  Rumania, 
and  Gwinner  is  assisting  the  Imperial  Government 
to  effect  a  nationalization  of  the  traffic  in  petroleum 
as  the  only  effective  means  of  crushing  Rockefel- 
lerism  in  the  Fatherland.  Gwinner  is  an  uncom¬ 
monly  plain  speaker.  Such  truths  as  he  hurled  at 
the  Minister  of  Finance  in  the  Prussian  Herren- 
haus  were  unique  in  German  parliamentary  practice. 
He  had  no  compunction  once  in  saying  to  the 
American  Chamber  of  Commerce  in  Berlin,  in  the 

42 


GWINNER 


presence  of  the  American  Ambassador  and  a  dozen 
captains  of  American  industry  gathered  round  a 
banquet  board,  that  the  United  States  currency 
system  bordered  on  a  travesty.  He  is  the  type  of 
the  idealist  and  scholar  in  business,  a  class  more 
numerous  in  Germany  than  anywhere  in  the  world. 
Gwinner  speaks  English,  French  and  Spanish  with 
the  utmost  fluency.  He  can  joke  in  our  language 
with  the  extempore  facility  of  Mr.  Plowden  or 
Chauncey  M.  Depew.  He  has  a  marvellous  memory 
and  quotes  Shakespeare  and  Moliere  with  the  same 
ease  as  Goethe  and  Schiller,  whom  he  knows  by 
heart.  Once  he  returned  a  document  to  a  subor¬ 
dinate  at  the  Deutsche  Bank  with  a  marginal 
reference  to  Polonius’  homily  to  Laertes  on  the 
relative  advantages  of  borrowing  and  lending.  “We 
don’t  borrow  too  much,”  he  once  declared  in  the 
Prussian  Parliament.  “We  borrow  too  little.  The 
thing  is  to  borrow  right.  Talent  is  necessary  for 
everything,  but  borrowing  requires  genius.” 

The  great  Bank  in  which  this  art  connoisseur, 
music-lover  and  book-devourer  plays  a  dominating 
role  is  capitalized  at  $50,000,000  and  has  a  reserve 
fund  of  $27,500,000.  Its  deposits  total  between 
$375,000,00°  and  $400,000,000.  It  maintains 
branches  in  London,  Constantinople  and  Brussels 
and  in  eleven  German  cities  outside  Berlin,  as  well 
as  agencies  in  all  the  principal  centres  of  the  world. 
Its  staff  exceeds  six  thousand.  World-wide  are  its 
ramifications.  It  owns  the  Banco  Aleman  Trans¬ 
atlantic,  with  a  sphere  of  influence  embracing  the 

43 


MEN  AROUND  THE  KAISER 


Argentine,  Chile,  Peru,  Bolivia,  the  Brazils,  Mexico 
and  Spain,  and  controls  the  German  Overseas  Elec¬ 
tric  Company  of  Buenos  Aires  which  furnishes  light 
and  power  in  the  leading  cities  of  the  Argentine, 
Chile  and  Uruguay.  As  for  Germany  itself,  there 
is  hardly  a  single  important  industrial  corporation  in 
which  the  Deutsche  Bank  is  not  heavily  interested. 
In  dozens  of  them  it  exercises  a  dominating  voice. 
From  the  date  of  Herr  von  Gwinner’s  connection 
with  the  institution,  now  a  matter  of  nineteen  years, 
the  Deutsche  Bank  has  never  paid  less  than  ten 
per  cent,  dividend.  Most  of  the  time  it  has  dis¬ 
tributed  eleven  and  twelve  per  cent.,  and  for  the 
last  four  years  twelve  and  one  half  per  cent. 


VI 


PRINCE  HENRY  OF  PRUSSIA 

TO  fill  the  role  of  a  monarch’s  brother  is  fre¬ 
quently  a  thankless  part.  It  has  been  known 
to  be  nebulous  and  decorative,  besides,  and 
few  have  played  it  worthily.  Prince  Henry  of  Prus¬ 
sia,  brother  of  the  Kaiser,  is  a  striking  exception  to 
the  general  rule.  No  man  of  the  reign  has  rendered 
his  country  more  effective  service  than  the  Sailor 
Prince,  who,  as  Inspector-General  of  the  German 
Navy,  is  the  ranking  officer  of  the  proud  Armada 
which  flies  the  Hohenzollern  battle-flag.  If  Grand- 
Admiral  von  Tirpitz  may  be  described  as  the  creator 
of  the  Kaiser’s  fleet,  Grand-Admiral  Prince  Henry 
may  be  called  its  trainer.  Commander-in-Chief  of 
the  Active  Battle  Fleet,  as  the  High  Seas  Fleet  of 
to-day  was  formerly  known,  at  the  moment  when  it 
was  undergoing  conversion  into  a  navy  of  Dread¬ 
noughts,  Prince  Henry  was  in  supreme  charge  of 
Germany’s  sea  forces  at  the  most  critical  moment 
of  their  existence.  The  arrival  of  the  all-big-gun 
and  Dreadnought-displacement  era  had  effected  a 
complete  revolution  in  the  naval  practices  of  the 
world.  Stereotyped  canons  of  construction,  strategy 
and  gunnery  required  to  be  overhauled  and  remade. 

45 


MEN  AROUND  THE  KAISER 


It  was  under  the  personal  supervision  of  the  Kaiser’s 
brother  that  the  German  Navy  rose  to  the  emergency 
with  promptitude  and  thoroughness  and  made  itself 
ready,  as  if  overnight,  to  hold  its  own  in  the  new 
conditions  of  sea  warfare.  That  is  why  the  Admiral 
Royal,  whose  pictures  so  often  make  him  look  like 
a  twin  of  King  George  or  the  Czar,  holds  a  place  in 
the  affections  of  his  Fatherland  almost  second  to 
none.  Germans  have  had  few  national  idols  since 
Bismarck.  Prince  Henry  is  one  of  them. 

Thoroughly  imbued  with  the  democracy  of  the 
sea,  with  an  active  career  of  more  than  thirty  years 
to  his  credit,  Prince  Henry  is  a  sailor-man  through 
and  through — an  admiral  first  and  a  Prince  after¬ 
wards.  He  has  had  little  time,  and  less  inclination 
for  the  luxurious  pastimes  of  his  royal  estate.  The 
fashions  and  frivolities  of  Court  life  have  never 
appealed  to  him.  His  hobby  is  the  sea,  and  he  is 
happiest  when  cultivating  it.  Naval  cadet  at  six¬ 
teen,  when  the  fleet  was  little  more  than  a  flotilla 
of  nondescript  frigates ;  battleship-captain  at  thirty, 
and  rear-admiral  four  years  later,  1906  found  Prince 
Henry  commander-in-chief  of  the  homogeneous 
squadrons  which  the  German  Admiralty  keeps  as¬ 
sembled  in  home  waters  as  one  great  sledge-hammer 
entity,  steam  up  and  eager  to  deliver  the  decisive 
blow  at  the  psychological  moment.  An  apostle  of 
the  “Ready,  aye  ready!”  policy  of  perpetual  pre¬ 
paredness  for  war,  he  was  fitted  both  by  tempera¬ 
ment  and  training  for  the  leadership  of  the  Empire’s 
battle  forces  afloat. 


46 


PRINCE  HENRY  OF  PRUSSIA1 


Only  the  most  urgent  diversions,  such  as  important 
foreign  missions  on  behalf  of  the  Kaiser,  enticed 
him  from  his  flagship  at  Kiel,  where,  too,  he  has 
long  had  his  home.  A  stickler  for  discipline,  his 
indomitable  energy  and  devotion  to  duty  were  at 
once  the  marvel  and  inspiration  of  the  entire  Fleet. 
German  naval  officers  are  notoriously  the  hardest- 
working — and  hardest-worked — in  the  world.  They 
had  a  constant  example  in  Prince  Henry.  He  took 
a  deep  interest  in  the  men  behind  the  guns  and  the 
unseen  heroes  of  the  hold.  Regardless  of  personal 
comfort  he  participated  regularly  in  the  long 
practice  cruises  of  the  High  Seas  Fleet  in  and  out 
of  season,  and  he  is  to-day  given  chief  credit  for 
the  strategic  and  tactical  skill  which  the  Kaiser’s 
battle  squadrons  have  attained.  After  Prince 
Henry  hoisted  his  farewell  signal  as  Commander-in- 
Chief  of  the  Fleet  three  years  ago,  he  was  rowed 
ashore  from  his  flagship  by  a  crew  of  lieutenants — 
a  pretty  and  affectionate  tribute  to  the  esteem  in 
which  the  Navy  cherishes  him. 

Prince  Henry  is  a  firm  disciple  of  his  brother’s 
celebrated  creed,  that  Germany’s  future  lies  on  the 
water.  A  man  of  initiative  and  fearless  independ¬ 
ence,  he  has  on  more  than  one  occasion  had  lively 
disagreements  with  the  Kaiser  on  naval  affairs. 
But  on  the  big  essential  idea  of  the  “bitter  need” 
of  Teuton  sea  power,  they,  like  the  rest  of  modern 
Germany,  are  indissolubly  one.  As  the  protector  of 
the  Navy  League,  Prince  Henry  has  been  actively 
identified  with  the  propaganda  by  which  the  inner- 

47 


MEN  AROUND  THE  KAISER 


most  recesses  of  the  Fatherland  have  been  converted 
to  naval  enthusiasm. 

The  Sailor  Prince,  now  in  his  fifty-first  year,  is 
the  Kaiser’s  junior  by  three  years  and  a  half.  They 
were  at  school  together  in  Cassel  between  1875 
and  1877,  the  Emperor  proceeding  to  the  University 
at  Bonn,  and  Prince  Henry  to  the  Naval  Academy 
at  Kiel.  Prince  Henry  was  a  favourite  of  his 
lamented  parents,  Emperor  and  Empress  Frederick. 

An  American  ambassador,  during  the  fateful 
100-day-reign,  once  spoke  to  Emperor  Frederick  in 
admiration  of  Crown  Prince,  now  Kaiser  William, 
to  whom  the  diplomat  had  been  presented  the  day 
before.  “Yes,”  responded  the  lovable  Frederick, 
“Wilhelm’s  a  fine  lad,  but  you  should  see  my  boy 
Heinrich!”  It  has  been  said  that  Prince  Henry 
inherits  his  Liebenswiirdigkeit  from  his  father,  and 
his  love  of  the  sea  from  his  English  mother.  When, 
as  a  cadet  of  sixteen,  he  was  sent  on  a  two-year  trip 
around  the  world  in  the  frigate  Prince  Adalbert,  his 
mother,  then  Crown  Princess  Victoria,  was  much 
concerned  for  his  safety.  Entirely  against  the 
cadet’s  will,  the  Crown  Princess  begged  the  old 
Emperor  to  excuse  her  sailor-boy  from  the  long 
cruise  aboard  the  frail  frigate.  Emperor  William  I., 
with  his  uncompromising  ideas  of  soldierly  duty, 
would  not  listen  to  the  maternal  appeal.  He  declared 
that  the  Sailor  Prince  must  face  the  ordeals  of  his 
appointed  career  like  the  humblest  middy  in  the 
Fleet.  Before  he  reached  home  shores,  two  years 
later,  Prince  Henry  had  weathered  a  typhoon  in 

48 


PRINCE  HENRY  OF  PRUSSIA 


the  Bay  of  Bengal,  and  received  his  baptismal 
experience  of  the  trials  and  terrors  of  his  life 
profession. 

Prince  Henry’s  first  important  flag  assignment 
came  when  he  was  sent  to  the  Far  East  in  1897  as 
admiral  in  command  of  the  Second  German  Cruiser 
Division.  On  his  departure  from  Kiel  the  Kaiser 
delivered  an  amazing  bon  voyage  speech.  “If  any¬ 
one  dares,”  he  said,  “to  interfere  with  our  good  right, 
ride  in  with  the  mailed  fist!”  The  depth  of  Prince 
Henry’s  veneration  for  his  brother — a  marked  trait 
of  his  many-sided  nature — was  manifested  by  his 
hardly  less  remarkable  reply.  “Neither  glory  nor 
laurels  attract  me,”  he  declared.  “My  one  desire 
is  to  proclaim  the  gospel  of  Your  Majesty’s  sacred 
person  in  foreign  parts.” 

Prince  Henry’s  flag  was  destined  to  flutter  amid 
stirring  times  in  Eastern  waters.  Germany’s  occupa¬ 
tion  of  Kiau-Chau,  the  price  China  had  to  pay  for 
the  murder  of  missionaries  engaged  in  converting 
the  benighted  sons  of  Confucius  to  the  creed  of 
Martin  Luther,  took  place  under  the  Prince’s 
auspices.  American  acquisition  of  the  Philippines 
soon  followed,  and  after  Admiral  von  Diederichs’ 
tactlessness  at  Manila  nearly  embroiled  Germany 
in  war  with  the  United  States,  Prince  Henry  in¬ 
herited  his  command  with  the  rank  of  vice-admiral. 

America’s  ruffled  susceptibilities  gave  the  Kaiser’s 
brother  opportunity  to  reveal  diplomatic  talent  of 
a  high  order,  which  has  meantime  often  been  invoked 
by  the  German  Government.  He  had  not  been 

49 


MEN  AROUND  THE  KAISER 

back  from  the  troubled  East  long  when  he  was 
dispatched  on  his  famous  mission  to  the  United 
States  in  1902.  Sent  there  ostensibly  to  officiate 
at  a  launch  of  a  racing-yacht  for  the  Kaiser,  Prince 
Henry’s  trip  had  for  its  underlying  object  the 
inauguration  of  what  has  since  been  known  as 
the  Kaiser’s  “American  policy.”  Germans,  who 
constitutionally  view  with  alarm  too  intimate  con¬ 
tact  of  the  ermine  with  the  homespun,  were  filled 
with  trepidation  as  to  how  Hohenzollern  dignity 
would  emerge  from  shoulder-brushing  with  Ameri¬ 
can  democracy.  Prince  Henry  himself  had  few 
qualms  on  that  score.  At  a  banquet  in  New  York  he 
toasted  the  leaders  of  the  American  press  as  men 
who  hold  the  rank  of  commanding-generals  in  his 
own  country — a  strong  dose  for  Prussian  Junkers, 
who  look  upon  journalists  as  intellectual  microbes. 
When  a  Chicago  newsboy,  as  His  Royal  Highness 
of  Germany  drove  through  the  streets  of  the  Windy 
City,  yelled  at  him,  “Hello,  Hank!  How  are  you?” 
the  brother  of  the  Supreme  War  Lord  smiled  from 
ear  to  ear,  and  replied :  “I’m  all  right !  How  are 
you?”  That  was  the  spirit  in  which  the  Sailor 
Prince  met  unconventional  Uncle  Sam.  That  is 
why  his  visit  was  a  success,  and  why  it  laid  deep 
and  well  the  foundations  of  the  Kaiser’s  “American 
policy.”  On  semi-diplomatic  visits  to  the  Courts 
of  England,  Russia  and  Japan,  and  on  minor  mis¬ 
sions  to  half  a  dozen  European  Courts  and  Govern¬ 
ments,  Prince  Henry  has  signally  distinguished  him¬ 
self. 


50 


PRINCE  HENRY  OF  PRUSSIA 


Next  to  the  sea,  sport  is  Prince  Henry’s  ruling 
passion.  He  has  been  a  pioneer  in  almost  every 
form  of  outdoor  activity,  a  cult  comparatively  new 
to  Germany,  but  one  in  which  she  is  already  making 
heroic  efforts  to  shine  at  the  Berlin  Olympiad  of 
1916.  Prince  Henry  is  huntsman,  skater,  swimmer 
and  golfer,  plays  a  strong  game  of  tennis,  is  a  dar¬ 
ing  tobogganist  and  sails  his  own  schooner  with  the 
skill  of  an  America  Cup  skipper.  He  has  been  the 
chief  ally  of  the  Kaiser  in  elevating  Kiel  Week  to 
the  dignity  of  one  of  the  world’s  premier  regattas. 
One  of  the  early  adherents  of  motoring  in  Germany, 
he  has  himself  long  been  an  expert  driver,  and 
competes  in  the  annual  “Prinz-Heinrich”  cross¬ 
country  run  of  the  Imperial  Automobile  Club,  of 
which  he  is  honorary  president.  He  knows  his  car 
from  top  to  bottom,  and  is  a  convincing  figure, 
rubber-clad,  tinkering  at  his  own  engine,  or  fitting 
a  tyre  like  a  chauffeur-mechanic  born.  He  finds 
time  to  further  the  cause  of  the  German  motor  trade, 
too,  and  has  latterly  made  personal  propaganda  for 
the  exclusive  use  of  German  petrol,  and  for  the 
increased  use  of  motor  cars.  He  discovered  that 
while  there  was  a  car  to  every  two  hundred  and 
forty-nine  inhabitants  in  England,  and  one  to  every 
four  hundred  and  forty-one  in  France,  only  one  out 
of  nine  hundred  and  twenty-seven  of  his  own  coun¬ 
trymen  was  an  automobilist.  He  preached  a  per¬ 
suasive  sermon  on  the  joys  and  advantages  of  motor¬ 
ing,  which  is  destined  to  have  tangible  effect. 

Always  up  to  date,  Prince  Henry  is  an  enthu- 
51 


VII 


COUNT  ZEPPELIN 

“A"  i  HE  greatest  German  of  the  Twentieth 
h  Century.”  Such  is  the  proud  title  con- 

JL  ferred  on  Count  von  Zeppelin  by  Em¬ 

peror  William  II.  in  a  burst  of  impulsive  eloquence 
five  years  ago,  when  the  septuagenarian  aeronaut 
alighted  at  His  Majesty’s  feet  from  a  Zeppelin 
airship.  At  first,  men  read  Imperial  hyperbole  into 
the  Kaiser’s  exclamation  in  the  same  spirit  as  they 
had  scoffed  for  sixteen  years  at  all  Count  Zeppelin’s 
dauntless  attempts  at  the  conquest  of  the  air.  To¬ 
day,  with  a  fleet  of  Zeppelins  in  being,  carrying  pas¬ 
sengers  serenely  and  safely  to  and  fro  across  the 
country,  comprising  an  integral  part  of  the  Father¬ 
land’s  military  “Watch  on  the  Rhine,”  and  serving 
as  the  eagle-eyes  of  the  Navy  on  the  North  Sea, 
the  sceptics  have  quit  their  sneering  and  arrived 
at  the  conclusion  that  Zeppelin,  indeed,  has  taken 
his  place  among  the  Immortals. 

Count  Zeppelin  will  be  seventy-five  years  old  in 
July,  1913.  He  was  seventy  when  Fame,  tardily 
and  reluctantly,  shook  him  by  the  hand  and  said, 
“Well  done!”  He  had  wooed  her  long  and  des¬ 
perately  before  her  smiles  were  lavished  upon 
him  irrevocably.  The  scroll  of  the  world’s  inventors 


COUNT  ZEPPELIN 


holds  many  a  tale  of  blighted  hopes  and  indomi¬ 
table  aspirations,  but  none  of  its  drama  outrivals 
the  story  of  Count  Zeppelin’s  triumph  over  failure 
and  disaster.  No  man  ever  climbed  to  greatness 
over  obstacles  more  relentless.  Few  have  survived 
such  blows  as  Fate  rained  on  his  snow-white  head 
mercilessly  for  twenty  years.  Those  were  the  con¬ 
siderations  which  moved  the  Kaiser  to  ordain  Zep¬ 
pelin  a  national  idol. 

To-day  one  no  longer  risks  a  reputation  for  con¬ 
servatism  by  opining  that  Zeppelin  airships  are  only 
on  the  threshold  of  their  ultimate  possibilities.  They 
have  already  given  Germany  the  command  of  the 
air.  The  feats  of  aeroplanes,  in  point  of  speed 
and  spectacular  achievements,  are  still  unrivalled, 
but  heavier- than-air  craft  in  other  respects  is  as  far 
behind  Zeppelins  as  the  dragon-kite  of  Lilienthal 
was  inferior  to  the  biplane  of  Wilbur  and  Orville 
Wright.  To  travel  a  day  and  a  night  without  inter¬ 
mediate  landing,  through  rain  and  snow  and  wind, 
with  two  score  passengers  and  crew,  is  child’s  play 
for  the  Imperators  and  Dreadnoughts  of  the  heav¬ 
ens.  Fifty  miles  an  hour  in  favouring  weather  has 
become  only  an  average  speed;  the  carrying  of  four 
and  one  half  tons  of  burden — explosives,  if  neces¬ 
sary,  mere  freight  of  peace,  if  desired — a  demon¬ 
strated  possibility.  Zeppelins  have  crossed  and  re¬ 
crossed  the  North  Sea  and  the  Baltic  in  single  non¬ 
stop  flights,  much  of  the  time  in  the  teeth  of  hostile 
blasts.  Equipped  with  searchlights,  wireless  teleg¬ 
raphy,  bomb-tubes  and  machine-guns,  the  aerial 

55 


MEN  AROUND  THE  KAISER 


leviathans  which  carry  the  battle-flags  of  the  Ger¬ 
man  Army  and  Navy  have  executed  a  dozen  flights, 
the  equivalent  of  trips  of  recognizance  along  the 
entire  frontier  of  France  or  the  coasts  of  Great 
Britain.  The  enactment  of  Germany’s  first  Aerial 
Fleet  Law,  which  provides  for  a  regular  building 
programme  of  Zeppelins  for  the  Army  and  Navy, 
is  the  Empire's  crowning  acknowledgment  of  Count 
Zeppelin’s  greatness. 

Bom  at  Constance,  on  the  placid  inland  sea  which 
washes  the  shores  of  Germany  and  Switzerland,  and 
which  was  destined  to  be  the  scene  of  his  triumphant 
labours,  the  son  of  a  Wurtemberg  Court  official, 
Count  Ferdinand  von  Zeppelin  devoted  his  early 
manhood  to  the  profession  of  his  caste,  the  Army. 
A  lieutenant  of  cavalry,  1863  found  him,  at  the  age 
of  twenty-five,  doing  duty  as  Wiirtemberg’s  military 
attache  with  the  Union  Army  in  the  American  War 
of  the  Rebellion.  Proceeding  directly  to  the  army  of 
the  Mississippi,  where  he  found  a  German  “48-er,” 
the  late  Carl  Schurz,  commanding  a  brigade,  Lieut, 
von  Zeppelin  evinced  an  irresistible  fondness  for 
getting  into  the  fray  in  some  capacity  more  thrill¬ 
ing  than  that  of  an  innocent  bystander.  A  few 
months  later,  at  the  sanguinary  engagement  of  Fred- 
ricksburg,  the  young  German  cavalryman  narrowly 
escaped  falling  into  the  enemy’s  hands  as  a  conse¬ 
quence  of  a  too  eager  determination  to  be  where 
the  sabres  were  thickest.  A  swift  mount  and  dar¬ 
ing  horsemanship  were  all  that  saved  him  from  a 
Confederate  prison. 


56 


COUNT  ZEPPELIN 


It  was  his  service  with  the  United  States  Army 
which  gave  Count  Zeppelin  the  first  chance  to 
gratify  his  inborn  longing  for  aeronautics.  His 
initial  ascent  was  made  in  a  captive  balloon  sent  up 
by  the  Federal  corps  to  which  he  was  attached,  for 
the  purpose  of  spying  upon  the  Confederate  lines 
beyond.  He  alighted  enthusiastic  over  his  exhila¬ 
rating  experience,  and  received  permission  to  make 
regular  ascents.  Germany’s  “future  in  the  air”  was 
born  in  Dixie. 

Count  Zeppelin  returned  to  his  Fatherland  just 
in  time  for  another  war — the  Prussian  campaign  of 
1866  against  Austria.  He  went  through  that  short, 
sharp  and  decisive  struggle  from  start  to  finish. 
But  it  was  not  until  the  cataclysmic  struggle  against 
France  that  the  intrepid  young  balloonist-trooper 
was  destined  to  carve  his  name  indelibly  in  German 
history.  On  July  24th,  1870,  a  few  hours  after 
the  declaration  of  war,  Count  Zeppelin,  with  four 
other  young  officers  and  seven  horsemen,  was  de¬ 
tailed  to  make  a  brazen  reconnoitring  dash  into 
French  territory  which  had  not  yet  been  invaded 
by  German  soldiery.  With  that  devil-may-care 
determination  which  has  proved  the  keynote  of  his 
life,  Zeppelin  led  his  little  column  boldly  into  the 
enemy’s  country.  The  news  of  their  invasion  spread 
like  wildfire  through  the  region  in  which  French 
troops  were  massing  to  meet  Moltke’s  oncoming 
legions.  Orders  were  given  to  take  the  German 
riders  dead  or  alive.  Tearing  like  mad  through  a 
frontier  village,  Zeppelin’s  horse  was  wounded  by 

57 


MEN  AROUND  THE  KAISER 


a  lancer,  who  “tackled”  him  while  both  were  riding 
at  full  speed.  Zeppelin  cut  his  antagonist  down  with 
a  sabre,  and,  leaving  him  prostrate,  jumped  on  his 
assailant’s  horse  and  made  off.  Through  Wiessen- 
burg,  Worth  and  a  dozen  other  towns  and  hamlets 
the  little  German  column  flew.  At  Reichshof  a 
^squadron  of  chasseurs  barred  the  way.  Lieut. 
Winsloe  was  shot  down — the  first  German  to  fall  in 
the  great  campaign.  Then  two  other  officers  and 
all  seven  of  Zeppelin’s  dragoons  were  surrounded 
and  compelled  to  surrender.  Only  Zeppelin  him¬ 
self  escaped — again  with  the  aid  of  a  captured 
French  mount.  For  hours  troops  scoured  the  coun¬ 
tryside  for  trace  of  the  dare-devil  young  cavalry¬ 
man,  only  finally  to  convince  themselves  that  he 
had  reached  German  soil  again  safe  and  sound,  the 
bearer  of  vital  information  concerning  the  enemy’s 
dispositions.  Count  Zeppelin  emerged  from  the 
Franco-German  campaign  a  Colonel,  and  advanced 
by  successive  stages  to  the  commandership  of  a 
brigade.  Later,  he  commanded  a  fortress,  repre¬ 
sented  Wurtemberg  in  the  Federal  Council  at  Berlin, 
and  in  1891  attained  the  rank  of  a  general  of  cav¬ 
alry,  with  which  he  retired. 

Count  Zeppelin,  long  a  theoretical  student  of  the 
science  of  airmanship,  began  to  devote  himself 
actively  to  its  pursuit  in  1892.  Though  no  longer 
young,  he  proceeded  to  equip  himself  with  practical 
knowledge  by  courses  of  apprenticeship  in  aero¬ 
nautics,  mechanics,  electricity,  sailmaking  and  mete¬ 
orology.  Peering  sagaciously  into  the  distant 

58 


COUNT  ZEPPELIN 


future,  he  described  his  aims  at  that  time  in  these 
prophetic  terms : 

“I  intend  to  build  a  vessel  which  will  be  able  to 
travel  to  places  which  cannot  be  approached — or 
only  with  great  difficulty — by  other  means  of  trans¬ 
port;  to  undiscovered  coasts  or  interiors;  in  a 
straight  line  across  land  and  water  where  ships 
are  to  be  sought  for;  from  one  fleet  station  or  army 
to  another  carrying  persons  or  dispatches ;  for  obser¬ 
vations  of  the  movements  of  hostile  fleets  or  armies, 
not  for  active  participation  in  the  operations  of 
actual  warfare.  My  dirigible  balloon  must  be  able 
to  travel  several  days  without  renewing  provisions, 
gas  or  fuel.  It  must  travel  quickly  enough  to  reach 
a  certain  goal  in  a  given  number  of  hours  or  days, 
and  must  possess  sufficient  rigidity  and  non-inflam¬ 
mability  to  ascend,  travel  and  descend  under  ordi¬ 
nary  conditions.” 

This  was  a  pretty  tall  order,  in  the  estimation 
of  the  military  and  scientific  experts.  A  roar  of 
benevolent  mirth,  mingled  with  pity  for  the  vagaries 
of  a  once  stable  mind,  reverberated  over  the  country. 

“Zeppelin’s  in  his  dotage,”  said  his  friends.  “A 
crank,  a  crazy  inventor,”  was  the  less  charitable 
observation  of  foes.  “I  never  pay  any  attention  to 
hare-brained  appeals  from  visionaries,”  wrote  a 
millionaire  American  newspaper-owner,  to  whom 
Zeppelin,  in  his  desperation  once  offered  practically 
to  mortgage  his  future  for  a  loan  of  $25,000.  But 
the  Count  kept  on  plodding,  mindless  alike  of  ridi¬ 
cule  and  indifference.  His  fortune  and  his  family’s 

59 


MEN  AROUND  THE  KAISER 


gradually  vanished.  He  built,  destroyed  and  re-con¬ 
structed  an  acre  of  models  and  actual  ships,  which 
seemed  all  right  in  theory  but  would  not  fly.  Then 
his  credit,  even  with  admirers  and  long-time 
backers,  ceased.  The  Government’s  aeronautical 
experts  turned  him  the  cold  shoulder.  He  issued 
vain  appeals  through  the  newspapers,  assuring  the 
nation  he  knew  he  was  on  the  right  track.  But  the 
little  man  who  had  cut  his  way  through  a  French 
army  corps  was  never  daunted.  Disappointment 
and  failure  were  habits  now.  They  only  spurred 
him  on  fresh.  By  hook  and  crook,  he  finally  con¬ 
trived  to  scrape  together  enough  money  to  build 
Zeppelin  III.,  and  with  it  in  the  summer  and 
autumn  of  1907  he  made  six  successful  flights — the 
last  one  a  sensational,  epoch-making  trip  of  nearly 
eight  hours,  in  which  over  200  miles  were  covered. 

The  anti-Zeppelin  party  at  Berlin  now  subsided. 
Their  plight  became  utter  confusion  when  the 
Government,  convinced  at  length  that  Zeppelins 
had  a  future,  agreed  to  purchase  No.  3,  and  grant 
Count  Zeppelin  an  additional  $125,000  for  further 
experiments.  The  Reichstag  passed  a  law  per¬ 
mitting  the  Count  to  conduct  a  national  lottery 
for  the  raising  of  still  further  experimental  sinews. 
Then  began  a  fresh  period  of  bouts  with  fate,  in 
which  Zeppelin  was  doomed  to  be  worsted  times 
without  number.  His  crowning  disaster  came  in 
August,  1908,  when  the  great  new  Zeppelin  IV., 
en  route  to  Lake  Constance  across  country  from 
the  north,  was  wrecked  on  the  plains  of  Echter- 

60 


COUNT  ZEPPELIN 


dingen,  in  Wiirtemberg.  Germany,  now  passion¬ 
ately  aroused  to  the  limitless  significance  of  Zep¬ 
pelins,  grieved  over  Echterdingen  as  if  some  great 
national  catastrophe  had  torn  the  nation’s  heart¬ 
strings.  An  amazing  exhibition  of  public  generosity 
was  the  result.  Within  six  weeks  the  Fatherland 
placed  a  fund  of  $1,500,000  at  Count  Zeppelin’s 
disposal  in  order  that  he  might  be  freed  for  all 
time  of  the  financial  nightmare  which  had  dogged 
his  career  without  compassion  so  many  years.  The 
Zeppelin  “dockyard”  at  Friedrichshafen,  on  Lake 
Constance,  sprang  into  being.  To-day  it  is  a  plant 
capable  of  turning  out  Zeppelins  of  the  biggest 
dimensions  at  the  rate  of  one  a  month.  Since 
Echterdingen,  half  a  dozen  Zeppelins  have  suffered 
the  fate  of  the  immortal  IV. ;  but  no  life  has  ever 
been  lost  in  Zeppelin  wrecks,  which  have  been  due 
in  every  case  to  external  causes,  frequently  care¬ 
lessness.  In  the  spring  of  1909,  Zeppelin  II.,  the 
second  of  a  new  type,  established  for  all  time  the 
miraculous  possibilities  dormant  in  the  craft  by  a 
continuous  thirty-eight-hour  journey  from  Fried¬ 
richshafen  to  Saxony  and  back  again  to  Wiirtem- 
berg — a  circuit  of  roundly  1,000  miles. 

Of  medium  height,  snow-haired  and  military  in 
every  feature  of  his  well-knit  frame,  Count  Zep¬ 
pelin,  like  all  men  who  have  fought  their  way 
through  adversity  to  glory,  is  modesty  personified. 
He  has  been  a  victim  of  hero-worshippers  for  the 
better  part  of  six  years,  but  they  have  not  turned 
his  head.  He  lives  unobtrusively  at  Stuttgart  when 

61 


MEN  AROUND  THE  KAISER 


not  superintending  affairs  at  Friedrichshafen,  fre¬ 
quently  takes  the  helm  of  new  ships  on  trial  flights, 
and,  like  “Bobs,”  he  does  not  advertise.  The  Count 
was  at  the  wheel  last  October  during  the  famous 
maiden  cruise  of  the  naval  Zeppelin  over  the  North 
Sea,  and  still  calls  the  clouds  his  natural  element. 
Berlin,  which  would  lionise  him,  seldom  sees  him. 
His  infrequent  visits  are  strictly  on  business,  for 
conference  with  the  War  Office  or  Admiralty.  He 
has  one  child,  a  daughter,  who  is  married  to  a 
Berlin  army  officer.  She  has  been  an  active  help¬ 
mate  of  her  widowed  father  through  the  long 
years  of  his  heart-breaking  vicissitudes.  Herself 
an  intrepid  aeronaut,  she  possesses  practical  knowl¬ 
edge  of  Zeppelins  both  from  the  construction  and 
operating  standpoints. 

In  the  evening  of  his  life,  so  full  of  restless 
achievements,  Count  Zeppelin  dreams  of  still  an¬ 
other  field  of  conquest  for  his  wonder-ships.  He 
means,  he  says,  before  he  grows  old,  to  explore 
the  unknown  regions  contiguous  to  the  North  Pole. 
Government  and  popular  support  in  plenty  is  be¬ 
hind  the  project,  which  has  already  advanced  be¬ 
yond  the  preliminary  stage.  As  for  merely  crossing 
an  ocean,  those  of  us  who  have  experienced  the 
incomparable  thrills  of  cruising  in  a  Zeppelin, 
would  book  our  passage  to-morrow  if  we  could. 
And  before  another  decade  of  our  pell-mell  history 
is  written,  I  verily  believe  we  shall. 


VIII 


THE  CROWN  PRINCE 

IT  was  a  distinguished  English  writer  who  once 
remarked  that  when  the  Crown  Prince  ascends 
the  throne  Germany  will  breathe  easier  and 
enjoy  a  rest.  What  the  cynic  meant  to  say  was 
that  the  boyish,  light-hearted  heir  to  Hohenzollern 
sovereignty  has  inherited  little  of  his  brilliant 
father’s  ebullient  energy,  and  that  the  Crown 
Prince’s  accession  will,  in  all  probability,  inaugurate 
an  era  of  national  repose  as  compared  to  the  restless 
atmosphere  which  the  world  associates  with  the 
Kaiser. 

Years  ago,  before  the  Crown  Prince  became  a 
husband  and  father,  Germans  used  to  have  but  one 
reply  when  asked  what  manner  of  boy  and  man  he 
was.  They  called  him  an  unbeschriebenes  Blatt, 
which  is  less  libellous  than  it  looks,  for  it  means  an 
“unwritten  page” — a  totally  unknown  quantity. 
With  a  parental  stage-manager  predisposed  to 
monopolise  most  of  the  speaking  parts,  the  present 
Heir-Apparent  was  condemned  to  play  even  a  muter 
role  than  falls  to  the  lot  of  most  eldest  sons  of 
monarchs.  But  Crown  Prince  William  is  by  no 
means  to-day  the  unknown  quantity  he  used  to 


MEN  AROUND  THE  KAISER 


be.  A  full-fledged  colonel  of  the  Army  at  thirty-one, 
he  has  made  numerous  occasions  in  recent  times  to 
convince  the  country  that  he  has  a  mind  and  a  back¬ 
bone  of  his  own.  He  has  shown  that  he  is  no  more 
of  a  colourless  respecter  of  mere  authority  than  was 
his  father  and  other  Hohenzollern  Crown  Princes 
before  him.  His  popularity  has  increased  along 
with  his  periodical  demonstrations  of  high-spirited 
independence.  A  chip  of  the  old  block  in  but  few 
respects,  he  has,  nevertheless,  won  a  warm  place  in 
the  nation’s  heart,  and  when  his  time  comes  Ger¬ 
mans  will  acclaim  him  with  unfeigned  affection  and 
pin  on  him  genuine  hopes  of  a  safe  and  sane  reign. 

Crown  Prince  William’s  first  notice  to  all  con¬ 
cerned  that  he  had  emerged  from  the  personally- 
conducted  stage  was  the  manner  in  which  he  went 
about  the  important  business  of  choosing  a  wife.  It 
is  not  of  official  record  that  the  Kaiser  cherished  for 
his  heir  an  alliance  of  such  obvious  political  value, 
for  example,  as  the  marriage  of  Princess  Victoria 
Luise,  his  only  daughter,  to  Prince  Ernest  Augustus 
of  Cumberland.  At  any  rate,  when  the  Crown 
Prince  went  consort-hunting  he  decided  to  obey 
exclusively  the  mandates  of  his  own  inclinations  and 
to  marry  for  love  and  beauty.  No  royal  romance 
in  any  age  was  more  purely  ideal  than  that  which 
culminated  in  the  wedding  of  the  future  German 
Emperor  and  Cecelie,  Duchess  of  Mecklenburg- 
Schwerin,  in  the  summer  of  1905.  The  lithe 
brunette  Princess,  who  is  half  Russian,  and  more 
French  than  German,  took  Berlin  by  storm  when  she 

64 


1  Jj'- 


THE  CROWN  PRINCE 


made  her  State  entry  into  the  Imperial  capital.  She 
has  nobly  lived  up  to  Hohenzollern  traditions  by 
bearing  her  consort  four  sturdy  sons  within  eight 
years. 

In  the  spring  of  1907  the  Crown  Prince  gave  the 
country  another  striking  exhibition  of  his  uncon¬ 
strained  character.  Maximilian  Harden’s  Zukunft 
for  months  had  bristled  with  innuendoes  that  all 
was  not  for  the  beet  in  the  personal  entourage  of  the 
Kaiser.  William  II.  is  said  to  derive  most  of  his 
worldly  information  from  selected  press-cuttings. 
Zukunft’s  vitriolic  shafts  at  Prince  Eulenburg, 
His  Majesty’s  great  friend,  and  General  Count  Kuno 
von  Moltke,  His  Majesty’s  aide-de-camp,  had  not 
come  to  the  Kaiser’s  attention.  The  sparrows  of 
Berlin,  in  Harden’s  own  picturesque  idiom,  were 
shrieking  from  the  housetops  the  scandal  of  which 
the  allerhochste  Person  alone  remained  in  blissful 
ignorance.  The  Crown  Prince  conceived  it  to  be 
his  patriotic  and  filial  duty  to  bring  the  facts, 
however  unappetising,  to  his  father’s  attention. 
The  banishment  of  Eulenburg  and  Moltke  from  the 
Imperial  “round  table’’  ensued,  and  six  months 
later  the  Harden  trial  brought  forth  the  public 
exposures  which  annihilated  for  ever  the  influence 
and  reputation  of  the  Eulenburg-Moltke  clique. 
Germans  would  fain  have  been  spared  the  ignominy 
of  those  revelations,  but  in  their  hearts  they  were 
grateful  to  Crown  Prince  William  for  precipitating 
them. 

Probably  no  more  flattering  light  was  ever  thrown 

65 


MEN  AROUND  THE  KAISER 


on  the  Crown  Prince’s  character  than  by  his  letters 
to  his  ex-comrade,  Count  von  Hochberg,  which 
came  to  public  knowledge  four  years  ago  in  an 
American  lawsuit.  The  letters  were  never  intended 
to  reach  the  world,  yet  the  Crown  Prince  could 
have  wished  for  no  better  means  of  proving  to 
his  future  subjects  that  he  is  every  inch  a  man. 
Germans  will  not  soon  forget  the  splendid  spirit  of 
personal  loyalty  which  the  letters  breathed,  nor  the 
almost  plaintive  happiness  the  Prince  expressed  over 
the  fact  that  “Papa  talks  politics  with  me  once  in 
a  while,  and  I  like  it.”  That  was  interpreted  as  a 
longing  for  serious  occupation  that  did  His  Imperial 
Highness  credit.  It  was  not  long  after  that  an 
accident,  which  temporarily  put  the  Kaiser’s  right 
hand  out  of  action,  induced  him  to  transfer  to  the 
Crown  Prince  for  the  first  time  the  right  of  signing 
State  documents. 

Crown  Prince  William’s  supreme  revelation  of 
rugged  independence,  or  impetuosity,  which  is 
sometimes  the  same  thing,  came  to  pass  during  the 
season  of  national  indignation  which  swept  over 
Germany  following  the  Moroccan  fiasco  of  1911. 
The  Reichstag  was  debating  what  large  sections  of 
the  country  considered  to  be  the  Government’s 
pusillanimity  in  face  of  British  “interference.” 
Spokesman  of  the  militant  class,  which  would  have 
mobilised  the  German  Army  and  Navy  to  avenge 
Agadir,  was  Herr  von  Heydebrand,  leader  of  the 
Conservative  Party.  The  Crown  Prince  was  in  the 
Royal  box.  Von  Heydebrand’s  stinging  attack 

66 


THE  CROWN  PRINCE 


on  Dr.  von  Bethmann  Hollweg’s  conduct  of  the 
Moroccan  affair  went  straight  to  the  Crown  Prince’s 
heart.  Ostentatiously,  so  that  all  in  the  crowded 
house  might  see,  he  applauded  each  belligerent 
indictment  which  fell  from  the  lips  of  the  little 
Junker  who  is  known  as  the  “uncrowned  King  of 
Prussia.”  It  was  an  amazing  demonstration  and 
unblushing  act  of  revolution  against  his  father’s 
Government.  The  Imperial  Chancellor,  replying 
to  Von  Heydebrand’s  thrusts,  pilloried  him  as  a 
warrior  who  carried  his  sword  in  his  mouth.  The 
retort  applied  equally  to  the  Heir  of  the  Throne;  but 
the  Crown  Prince  unquestionably  gave  vent,  how¬ 
ever  tactlessly,  to  the  sentiments  gnawing  at  his 
angry  country’s  heart,  and  he  left  the  Reichstag 
with  his  hold  on  the  popular  imagination  even  more 
secure  than  it  was  before. 

All  these  varied  exhibitions  of  courageous  and 
high-minded  initiative  were  expressions  of  a  temper¬ 
ament  which  the  Crown  Prince  had  manifested  all 
his  life.  He  was  long  famed  in  the  Army  for  dare¬ 
devil  horsemanship.  He  had  to  his  credit  the  freak 
of  leading  his  squadron  of  dragoons  up  the  terraced 
steps  of  Sans  Souci  Palace  at  Potsdam,  and  holding 
high  jinks  with  them  at  the  crest.  Arrest  in  quarters 
was  the  penalty,  and  a  similar  fate  overtook  him  a 
couple  of  years  later  when  the  Kaiser  heard  that  his 
heir  had  ridden  and  won  a  perilous  steeplechase  at 
Karlshorst,  the  German  Newmarket.  Risk  and 
adventure  make  an  irresistible  appeal  to  this 
vigorous  Hohenzollern.  He  sailed  in  a  Zeppelin 

67 


MEN  AROUND  THE  KAISER 


without  asking  anybody’s  consent,  and  did  not  tell 
the  Kaiser  of  an  aeroplane  flight  with  Orville 
Wright  at  Potsdam,  till  after  he  had  the  exhilarating 
experience  behind  him.  In  Ceylon  and  India,  in 
the  winter  of  1910-1911,  the  Crown  Prince’s  hunts 
in  the  jungle  provided  ample  evidence  that  through 
his  veins  courses  the  blood  of  a  true  and  fearless 
sportsman. 

The  zeal  with  which  His  Imperial  Highness 
devotes  himself  to  sport  of  all  kinds  sometimes 
makes  his  countrymen  think  the  Crown  Prince  does 
not  take  his  royal  heritage  and  future  responsibilities 
seriously.  The  charge  has  little  basis  of  fact. 
Being  a  Hohenzollern  and  the  son  of  his  father, 
he  is  first  of  all  a  zealous  soldier.  For  two  years 
he  has  been  immured  in  a  provincial  garrison, 
Danzig,  far  remote  from  Berlin  and  Potsdam — 
exiled,  it  has  been  whispered,  because  of  the  Kaiser’s 
alleged  jealousy  over  the  Crown  Prince’s  growing 
popularity — and  the  Death’s  Head  Hussars  have 
never  had  a  more  earnest  commander.  He  has  a 
weakness  for  leaves  of  absence,  for  he  likes  to 
ski  and  flirt  and  sleigh  at  St.  Moritz,  and  sail  his 
yachts  at  Kiel  in  the  blithe  summer  time,  and 
attend  theatre  in  Berlin,  but  he  regards  his  military 
profession  as  serious  business,  and  has  advanced 
through  all  the  successive  grades  to  his  present 
rank  of  colonel,  by  dint  of  hard  work  and  meri¬ 
torious  service.  His  enthusiasm  for  sport  is  far 
remote  from  time-wasting.  Germany  needs  shining 
examples  in  the  realm  of  games  and  outdoor  play, 

68 


THE  CROWN  PRINCE 


and  the  pioneer  work  the  Crown  Prince  and  his 
royal  uncle,  Prince  Henry  of  Prussia,  have  done  for 
golf,  tennis,  rowing,  hockey,  football,  polo,  yachting 
and  boxing,  is  destined  to  redound  to  the  glory  of 
Young  Germany  when  she  meets  the  world  in 
athletic  combat  at  the  Berlin  Olympic  Stadium  in 
1916. 

Tall  and  narrow-chested,  conveying  the  impres¬ 
sion  of  physical  weakness  and  only  ordinary  mental 
calibre,  the  Crown  Prince  belies  all  his  external 
characteristics.  Outwardly  there  is  nothing  of  the 
typical  Hohenzollern  about  him.  You  trace  his 
physiognomy  in  vain  for  indications  of  martial 
virility.  Instead  of  the  stern  features  of  his  father, 
accentuated  by  the  upturned  moustaches,  the  Crown 
Prince’s  face  is  oftenest  wreathed  in  a  boyish  smile. 
It  betokens  kindliness  of  heart,  which  is  one  of  his 
most  highly  developed  characteristics.  He  has  the 
Liebenswiirdigkeit  of  his  much-loved  grandfather, 
Emperor  Frederick.  He  is  fond  of  music  and  plays 
the  violin  well.  Modesty  and  democracy  are  inborn 
in  him.  Not  long  ago  he  took  part  in  the  golden 
wedding  feast  of  an  humble  Potsdam  cobbler. 
“The  day  will  come,”  he  once  said,  “when  Social 
Democrats  will  go  to  Court.”  He  dotes  on  violating 
the  speed  limit  in  his  ninety  horse-power  motor  car, 
but  he  has  been  known  to  stop  to  pick  up  a  peasant 
found  prostrate  on  the  highway  and  drive  him  to 
hospital. 

The  Crown  Prince’s  most  passionate  object  of 
admiration,  next  to  his  wife  and  boys,  is  the  great 

69 


MEN  AROUND  THE  KAISER 


Napoleon.  Pictures,  statuettes,  busts,  medallions, 
engravings  and  other  mementoes  of  the  Corsican 
conqueror  are  to  be  seen  in  profusion  in  the  Prince’s 
study  at  the  Marble  Palace  in  Potsdam.  The 
oppressor,  the  liberation  from  whose  yoke  a  century 
ago  all  Prussia  is  now  commemorating,  and  who 
divided  up  this  Hohenzollern’s  own  realm  into 
French  provinces,  is  said  to  be  the  Crown  Prince’s 
model  of  what  a  great  leader  and  strong  ruler  ought 
to  be.  He  is  the  idol  of  the  German  army  almost 
to  a  greater  degree  than  his  father.  The  Kaiser’s 
periodical  panegyrics  on  the  blessings  of  peace  do  not 
appeal  to  the  military  party.  The  Crown  Prince’s 
martial  ebullitions  make  his  brother-officers  think  he 
is  much  more  of  a  man  of  war  than  William  II.,  and 
it  is  he  on  whom  their  fondest  hopes  are  pinned. 

“Who  knows,”  a  French  writer  once  asked, 
“whether  it  may  not,  perhaps,  be  the  secret  dream 
of  this  young  man  to  be  a  surviving  and  triumphant 
Duke  of  Reichstadt,  and  to  take  up  the  wonderful 
inheritance?” 

In  a  moment  of  reverie  during  the  chase  in  India, 
the  Crown  Prince  peered  ahead  to  the  time  when 
he  will  rule.  He  records  his  soliloquy  in  “My 
Hunting  Diary.”  “I  believe,”  he  said,  “in  the  dictum 
of  my  sainted  ancestor,  Frederick  the  Great,  and 
agree  with  him  that  people  should  be  allowed  to 
pursue  happiness  and  salvation,  each  in  his  own 
sweet  way.”  The  Fatherland’s  destinies  ought  to 
be  safe  in  the  keeping  of  a  Supreme  War  Lord  of 
such  ideals. 


IX 


EMIL  RATHENAU 

“  A  E.G.”  Wherever  you  go  in  Germany,  a 
I  \  trio  of  initials  is  constantly  hitting  you 
jL  JL.  in  the  eye  and  striking  the  ear.  You 
encounter  them  in  your  newspaper  and  find  them 
cropping  up  in  conversation.  They  are  as  ubiquitous 
as  the  Libert e,  Egalite  et  Fraternite  of  France. 
Before  you  cease  wondering  whether  they,  too,  may 
not  be  a  national  emblem,  you  learn  that  they  are 
the  popular  form  given  to  the  name  of  Germany’s 
foremost  industrial  undertaking,  the  Allgemeine 
Electricitats  Gesellschaft — General  Electric  Com¬ 
pany.  The  home  address  of  the  A. E.G.  is  Berlin, 
but  its  interests  and  influence  comprehend  the  globe. 
Its  flag  flies  in  Russia,  France,  Austria,  Italy, 
Sweden,  Spain,  Switzerland,  Turkey,  South  Africa, 
the  Argentine,  Uruguay,  Chile  and  the  Dutch  East 
Indies.  In  its  own  country  it  is  almost  as  much  of 
an  institution  as  the  Army  or  any  of  the  other  big 
national  establishments,  without  which  Germany 
would  not  be  what  it  is.  The  company  is  a  young¬ 
ster,  as  great  businesses  go.  It  is  not  the  product 
of  four  generations,  like  Krupp’s.  It  was  founded 
only  thirty  years  ago  by  the  man  who  still  heads  it, 

7 1 


MEN  AROUND  THE  KAISER 


Emil  Rathenau.  It  began  with  a  capital  of 
$1,250,000.  To-day  the  A.E.G.  disposes  over 
interests  valued  at  $1,000,000,000,  which  is  exactly 
the  amount  of  the  war  indemnity  Germany  extorted 
from  conquered  France. 

Like  Ballin  of  Hamburg,  Rathenau  is  a  Jew  and 
utterly  self-made.  The  three  outstanding  figures 
of  Business  Germany — Ballin,  Thyssen  and  Rathe¬ 
nau — are  types  of  the  men  with  whom  the  new 
Fatherland  was  providentially  endowed  at  the 
psychological  moment  of  its  crowning  necessities. 
Bismarck  had  accomplished  in  the  creation  of  the 
Empire  a  political  achievement  of  such  all-embrac¬ 
ing  magnitude  that  there  was  no  longer  either  place 
or  occasion  for  great  deeds  of  statesmanship  or 
towering  personalities  to  perform  them.  The  work 
of  conquest  still  to  be  done  was  essentially  economic. 
The  brains  of  the  Griinderjahre  turned  naturally 
to  business.  That  explains  why  modern  Germany 
possesses  a  surplus  of  mercantile  and  industrial 
genius  and  suffers  from  a  dearth  of  political  talent. 
The  giants  of  the  post-Bismarck  era  were  called 
upon  to  perform  deeds  as  Trojan  as  the  Unification. 
The  stupendous  industrial  fabric  they  were  to 
evolve  had  to  be  wrung  from  a  soil  comparatively 
barren  of  natural  wealth.  Against  the  bountiful 
resources  of  an  American,  they  had  to  match  organ¬ 
izing  skill,  scientific  methods,  daring  enterprise  and 
grinding  toil.  And  they  had  to  fight  for  their 
lives  against  the  hampering  traditions  of  a  regime 
steeped  in  bureaucracy. 

72 


EMIL  RATHENAU 


Emil  Rathenau  has  probably  clone  more  than  any 
other  one  man  to  precipitate  Germany  to  the  front 
rank  industrially.  He  brought  in  the  telephone  and 
the  incandescent  light.  He  established  the  first 
electric  light  “plant.”  He  blazed  the  way  for  the 
transmission  of  electric  power  for  manufacturing 
purposes.  He  made  possible  the  development  of 
electric  tramways.  He  was  the  pioneer  of  the 
turbine.  He  devised  countless  new  uses  for  applied 
electricity  and  manufactured  the  apparatus  for 
them.  Above  and  before  all,  he  originated  the 
system  of  creating  a  demand  for  that  which  he 
desired  to  supply,  and  invented  the  principle  of 
financing  people  or  communities  which  wanted  and 
needed  what  he  had  to  give  them,  but  lacked  the 
ready  money  to  buy  it.  He  became  engineer, 
merchant,  manufacturer  and  banker  rolled  into  one. 
It  takes  but  a  paragraph  to  catalogue  Rathenau’s 
achievements;  it  would  require  an  encyclopaedia  to 
record  the  epoch  which  they  inaugurated. 

Rathenau  is  a  born  Berliner,  like  his  father  before 
him.  He  manifested  early  symptoms  of  wanderlust, 
and  before  emerging  from  the  ’teens  was  an  appren¬ 
tice  in  overalls  and  blouse  at  a  machinery  foundry 
in  Silesia.  There  he  spent  four  years  of  grimy  toil, 
later  to  invest  an  inheritance  of  $3,750  in  courses  of 
training  at  the  Polytechnical  colleges  of  Hanover 
and  Zurich.  England  was  then  the  unchallengeable 
mistress  of  the  mechanical  universe,  and  Rathenau’s 
next  occupation  was  as  a  volunteer  draughtsman  in 
the  ship-engine  building  firm  of  Messrs.  John  Penn 
73 


MEN  AROUND  THE  KAISER 


&  Co.,  of  Greenwich.  He  returned  to  Germany 
with  his  own  design  for  a  i,ooo-h.p.,  expansion 
engine,  and  presently  went  into  business  on  his  own 
account  as  the  proprietor  of  a  small  foundry  in 
Berlin.  His  plans  and  ambitions  speedily  outran 
his  means  and  credit,  and  he  eventually  sold  the 
foundry  with  nothing  gained  except  an  experience 
which  was  to  prove  the  foundation  of  his  career. 
He  laid  down  for  himself  forthwith  the  principle 
of  never  engaging  in  an  enterprise  before  the  capital 
was  in  sight.  The  colossal  transactions  of  the 
A.E.G.  of  to-day,  representing  annual  business  of 
over  $75,000,000,  are  all  based  on  the  lessons  of 
Emil  Rathenau’s  luckless  venture  of  callow  days. 
He  never  forgave  the  banking  fraternity  for  leaving 
his  little  foundry  in  the  lurch.  Nowadays  he  is 
one  of  the  few  captains  of  German  industry  who 
dictate  terms  to  the  financiers.  It  is  usually  the 
other  way  about. 

For  the  succeeding  ten  years  Rathenau  was 
practically  idle.  Germany  was  in  the  throes  of  the 
economic  crisis  which  followed  the  Franco-Prussian 
War.  With  that  almost  superhuman  power  of 
divination  which  is  his  distinguishing  characteristic, 
Rathenau  realized  the  time  was  not  yet  ripe  for 
launching  the  ambitious  schemes  surging  and 
maturing  in  his  restless  brain.  He  contemplated 
impatiently  from  afar  the  triumphs  of  labour-sav¬ 
ing  machinery  in  the  United  States.  He  tried 
and  failed  to  induce  the  German  War  Office, 
which  wanted  to  reconstruct  800,000  captured 

74 


EMIL  RATHENAU 


French  CJiassepot  rifles,  to  let  him  carry  out  the 
work  with  American  machinery,  which  enabled  him 
to  tender  for  the  work  at  a  third  of  the  price  asked 
by  rivals.  Labour-saving  machinery  was  still  ex¬ 
coriated  in  Germany  as  “American  bluff.” 

The  virus  of  doing  things  on  a  colossal  scale  was 
implanted  in  Rathenau’s  system  by  his  visit  to  the 
Centennial  Exhibition  at  Philadelphia  in  1876. 
He  returned  bubbling  with  enthusiasm  over  the 
dimensions  of  everything  Transatlantic.  He  had 
been  fascinated  most  of  all  by  the  telephone  on 
public  exhibition  for  the  first  time  at  the  Centennial. 
It  electrified  his  soul,  as  he  has  since  epitomized 
his  emotions.  For  a  while  he  considered  acquiring 
the  right  to  manufacture  telephone  apparatus,  but 
finally  decided  to  apply  for  a  franchise  to  furnish 
telephone  service  in  Berlin.  Bureaucratic  opposi¬ 
tion  almost  shattered  his  plans.  The  Postmaster- 
General  said  a  telephone  exchange  in  Berlin  would 
secure  at  the  most  twenty-three  subscribers,  but 
it  was  not  long  before  the  postal  authorities  were 
asking  Rathenau  to  superintend  the  installation. 

Rathenau  did  not  really  strike  his  gait  until 
1881,  when  Edison’s  incandescent  light  was  on 
display  in  Europe  for  the  first  time  at  the  Paris 
Electricity  Exhibition.  Rathenau’s  intuition  told 
him  instantly  that  the  future  of  illumination 
belonged  indisputably  to  the  little  pear-shaped  bulb. 
He  determined  to  dedicate  his  energies  to  acquiring 
the  light  for  Germany  and  exploiting  it  to  the 
uttermost  degree.  In  short  order  he  formed  the 

75 


MEN  AROUND  THE  KAISER 


German  Edison  Company  for  Applied  Electricity, 
which  was  to  become  the  nucleus  of  the  A.E.G. 

Thenceforth  Emil  Rathenau’s  career  was  a  series 
of  engineering,  financial  and  commercial  triumphs. 
Each  outstripped  its  forerunner  in  boldness  of 
conception,  magnitude  and  success.  In  1887  the 
Edison  Company  was  transformed  into  the  General 
Electric  Company,  which  now  undertook  the  manu¬ 
facture  of  electric  apparatus  on  a  huge  scale.  There 
was  not  enough  electric  light  being  consumed  in 
Berlin  to  suit  Rathenau,  so  he  evolved  the  idea  of 
creating  a  demand  for  it.  Hitherto  it  had  been  a 
luxury.  He  decided  to  make  it  a  commodity.  His 
ambition  was  to  make  it  a  necessity.  He  organized 
the  Berlin  Electricity  Works,  secured  by  municipal 
charter  the  right  to  use  the  streets  for  transmission 
of  current  far  and  wide,  and  proceeded  to  deliver 
electricity  to  the  consumer  at  an  attractive  price. 
To-day,  the  Berlin  Electricity  Works,  which  con¬ 
trols  the  light  and  power  supply  of  a  vast  metrop¬ 
olis,  represents  a  $30,000,000  property.  The  City 
of  Berlin,  which  in  1889  derived  $3,750  annual 
compensation  from  the  Rathenau  franchise,  now 
draws  $1,500,000  a  year  from  the  same  source. 

Rathenau,  having  by  this  time  thoroughly  intro¬ 
duced  the  Electric  era,  next  turned  his  attention 
to  tramways.  The  old  firm  of  Siemens  &  Halske, 
which  in  the  past  had  fairly  monopolized  the 
electrical  industry,  had  now  to  reckon  with  a  dan¬ 
gerous  antagonist.  Rathenau’s  scheme  of  inducing 
communities  to  build  and  operate  their  own  power- 

76 


EMIL  RATHENAU 


plants  seemed  unethical  to  Siemens  &  Halske,  who 
entered  without  reluctance  into  an  apparently  inno¬ 
cent  arrangement  proposed  by  Rathenau,  whereby 
they  should  enjoy  non-competitive  advantages  in 
the  carrying  out  of  business  which  came  to  them 
voluntarily  from  States,  cities  or  private  individuals, 
while  Rathenau’s  A.E.G.  should  be  undisturbed  in 
the  pursuit  of  concessions  and  in  their  execution. 
Messrs.  Siemens  &  Halske  had  never  looked  with 
favour  on  the  ultra-modern  tactics  of  the  “industrial 
banker,”  who  made  a  pernicious  practice  of  looking 
for  orders  instead  of  waiting  for  them.  It  was  not 
long  before  they  assented  to  the  annulment  of  the 
agreement  into  which  they  had  so  cheerfully 
entered.  They  found  that  the  Rathenau  principle 
of  creating  consumption  was  not  only  sound,  but 
irresistible. 

Rathenau  was  now  recognized  as  a  sagacious  and 
resourceful  financier.  The  electrical  industry  was 
expanding  at  such  a  break-neck  pace  that  he  fore¬ 
saw  the  urgency  of  extraordinary  methods  of 
financing  it.  To  that  end,  in  1895,  he  founded  the 
“Bank  for  Electrical  Undertakings”  at  Zurich, 
which  was  intended  to  be  a  “holding  company”  on 
the  American  model.  Its  primary  purpose  was  to 
promote  electrical  enterprises  of  all  conceivable 
sorts  and  to  control  their  operations  in  the  interests 
of  the  A.E.G.  Since  then  he  has  founded  two  other 
“holding  companies,”  to  supervise  the  technical 
management  of  the  numerous  daughter  concerns 
which  the  A.E.G.  has  brought  into  existence  at 

77 


MEN  AROUND  THE  KAISER 


home  and  abroad.  In  1902,  as  a  counterstroke  to 
the  acquirement  of  the  important  Schuckert  works 
at  Nuremberg  by  Siemens  &  Halske,  the  A.E.G. 
took  over  the  Union  Electrical  Company  of  Berlin. 
In  1910,  his  passion  for  expansion  still  ungratified, 
Rathenau  annexed  the  electric  and  cable  works  of 
the  great  firms  of  Lahmayer  at  Frankfort  and 
Felter-Guilleaume  at  Miilheim. 

The  secret  of  Emil  Rathenau’s  success  is  twofold : 
divination  and  market  creation.  The  underlying 
object  of  every  undertaking  he  ever  launched  was 
the  creation  of  a  wider  consumption  of  electricity. 
He  has  his  eye  fixed  on  electrification  of  steam 
railways  as  the  next  great  goal  of  the  industry. 
Bureaucratic  old-fogeyism,  his  ancient  foe,  has 
again  intrenched  against  him,  but  he  hopes  to  live 
to  dislodge  it.  If  he  could  have  his  way,  he  would 
buy  up  the  most  important  line  in  the  country,  that 
running  between  Berlin  and  Hamburg,  and  electrify 
it  at  his  own  expense  merely  to  illustrate  the  prac¬ 
ticability  of  his  idea.  Together  with  Siemens  & 
Halske,  he  spent  $625,000  a  few  years  ago  for  the 
purpose  of  demonstrating  that  an  electrically  pro¬ 
pelled  railway  carriage  could  travel  at  the  rate  of 
one  hundred  and  twenty-five  miles  an  hour. 

Rathenau  is  not  what  is  ordinarily  called  smart  or 
clever.  He  does  not  understand  the  art  of  haggling. 
He  is  almost  thick-headed.  He  has  no  talent 
whatever,  and  less  patience,  for  complicated  things. 
Nothing  appeals  to  him  which  cannot  be  made 
plain  enough  for  a  child  to  comprehend.  He  has 

78 


EMIL  RATHENAU 


accomplished  all  his  great  strokes  by  reducing 
problems  to  the  proportions  of  utter  simplicity  and 
plausibility.  When  he  lays  a  million-pound  scheme 
before  a  bank  or  submits  an  electrical  project  to  a 
town  council,  it  is  as  transparent  as  his  own  incan- 
descents.  He  is  sincere  and  open  to  the  point  of 
naivete.  He  thinks  at  least  ten  years  ahead  of  the 
ordinary  man.  All  his  triumphs  have  been  the  feats 
of  a  seer.  He  predicted  the  German  commercial 
crisis  of  1901  almost  to  the  day.  The  Electric  King 
has  no  hobbies.  He  eats,  sleeps,  drinks  and  thinks 
business.  His  only  interest  outside  of  it  is  a 
generous  philanthropy.  No  worthy  appeal  is  ever 
directed  to  him  in  vain.  Rathenau  is  seventy-four 
years  old  and  in  indifferent  health,  but  the  hand 
on  the  throttle  of  the  A.E.G.  is  still  his. 


* 


X 


MAX  REINHARDT 

WHEN  Herr  Otto  Brahm,  the  late  Nestor 
of  the  German  stage,  was  on  a  periodical 
still-hunt  for  talent  in  Austria  one  day 
in  the  early  ’nineties  the  pupils  of  the  School  of 
Acting  at  the  Vienna  Conservatorium  were  put 
through  their  paces  for  his  edification.  His  at¬ 
tention  was  speedily  riveted  upon  a  young  actor 
who  was  giving  a  moving  impersonation  of  an  old 
man.  Brahm  made  a  mental  snapshot  of  his  im¬ 
pressions  and  adjured  the  director  of  the  Schau- 
spielschule  to  keep  an  eye  on  the  stocky  stripling 
who  had  played  with  such  appealing  realism.  His 
name  was  Max  Reinhardt. 

It  is  to-day  beside  the  mark  to  speak  merely 
of  Reinhardt’s  influence  on  the  German  stage.  It 
is  sheer  domination  he  now  wields.  Detractors 
and  imitators  alike  have  failed  to  arrest  his  prog¬ 
ress.  He  has  marched  from  triumph  to  triumph, 
not  only  at  home,  but  abroad.  London  capitulated 
to  the  sublimity  of  his  art  in  Sumurun,  then  in 
The  Miracle  and  King  CEdipus.  Paris,  New  York, 
St.  Petersburg,  Moscow,  Vienna,  Budapest  and 
Stockholm  have  in  turn  acclaimed  it.  The  gifted 
Austrian  of  thirty-nine  is  the  great  world-figure 
of  the  twentieth-century  stage. 

8o 


MAX  REINHARDT 


Max  Reinhardt’s  distinguishing  characteristics 
are  energy,  modesty,  concentration  and  restless 
ambition.  His  gluttony  for  work  approaches  the 
superhuman.  A  well-knit  frame  of  somewhat  less 
than  average  height,  surmounted  by  a  leonine  head 
and  sturdy  shoulders,  denotes  the  physical  power 
within  him.  Spirituality  and  strength  of  character 
shine  forth  no  less  eloquently  from  his  dark  grey 
eyes,  which  illuminate  a  smooth-shaven  countenance 
ringed  by  a  wealth  of  upstanding,  blackish-brown 
hair  with  a  distinct  tendency  to  curl. 

To  watch  Reinhardt  at  work  is  to  see  a  human 
dynamo  in  motion,  but  a  noiseless  one.  He 
“hustles”  without  making  a  fuss  about  it.  He  is 
imperturbability  itself.  He  is  said  not  to  know 
the  art  of  losing  his  temper.  His  foes — Berlin  is 
full  of  them — assure  one  that  Reinhardt  finds  his 
keenest  delight  in  remaking  and  mutilating  the 
masterpieces  of  the  immortals.  His  methods  are 
beyond  all  question  essentially  revolutionary.  Every 
piece  he  produces,  be  it  comedy,  farce,  drama  or 
tragedy,  is  approached  with  the  firm  determina¬ 
tion  to  obliterate  the  stereotyped  and  to  stamp 
it  with  vivid  individuality.  He  has  proclaimed 
that  the  eye  has  equal  rights  in  the  theatre  with 
the  ear.  He  lives  boldly  up  to  his  artistic  Decalogue, 
especially  when  the  old-time  classics  engage  his 
attention.  Then  is  when  the  blood  of  his  critics 
threatens  to  boil  over.  The  liberties  he  takes,  the 
abandon  with  which  he  lops  off  whole  scenes  from 
original  texts,  the  brazenness  with  which  he  rele- 

8i 


MEN  AROUND  THE  KAISER 


gates  tradition  and  establishes  precedents,  the  rich¬ 
ness  of  his  settings,  make  his  detractors  gasp  and 
scoff.  They  cry  that  A  Winter’s  Tale  and  A  Mid¬ 
summer  Night’s  Dream,  as  done  at  the  Deutsches 
Theater,  may  be  magnificent,  but  are  not  Shake¬ 
speare;  that  Katchen  von  Hcilbronn  is  brilliant,  but 
not  Ivleist.  When  The  Robbers  is  put  on,  the  oppo¬ 
sition  complain  that  they  are  regaled  with  Reinhardt 
instead  of  Schiller,  and  last  season  when  the 
Deutsches  Theater  revived  the  second  part  of  Faust, 
the  croakers  shrieked :  “This  is  not  Goethe !” 

Like  Richard  Strauss,  Reinhardt  waves  a  magic 
wand  over  abuse  and  turns  it  into  encouragement. 
He  hoists  higher  and  higher  upon  his  banner  the 
heretical  doctrine  that  the  theatre  is  neither  ex¬ 
clusively  a  moral  nor  a  literary  institution;  that 
its  mission  is  not  essentially  to  guide  human  conduct, 
nor  to  be  the  medium  of  giving  expression  to  writ¬ 
ings  devoid  of  theatrical  merit.  “The  theatre  be¬ 
longs  to  the  theatre”  is  his  motto.  He  has  decreed 
that  his  stage  shall  hold  the  mirror  up  to  nature  re¬ 
ligiously,  even  mercilessly,  and  that  his  repertoire 
shall  be  as  kaleidoscopic  as  life  itself — “Where  the 
whole  scale  of  Fate,  from  the  depth  of  its  horrors 
to  the  dizziest  heights  of  its  joys,  shall  be  played 
upon;  where  men  and  women  shall  sob  and  laugh; 
where  colour,  now  dull  and  dismal,  now  bright  and 
joyous,  shall  alternate;  where  orchestra  and  chorus 
, shall  sometimes  revel,  sometimes  mourn ;  where 
actors  shall  play  the  tragedian  to-day,  to-morrow 
the  clown,” 


82 


MAX  REINHARDT 

These  canons  make  up  Reinhardt’s  theatrical 
bible.  Ideals  and  innovations  are  his  daily  bread. 
He  never  stands  still.  He  resorted  to  the  revolving 
stage  because  the  stationary  boards  of  the  the¬ 
atrical  fathers  had  outgrown  their  usefulness  for 
his  restless  purposes.  In  conjunction  with  masterly 
scenic  artists,  Ernst  Stern  and  Roller,  Reinhardt 
evolved  the  secret  of  stage  heavens  and  clouds  of 
convincing  naturalness.  He  set  about  to  reorganise 
lighting  schemes,  and  drew  lavishly  upon  the  won¬ 
ders  of  modern  electricity.  He  banished  all  make- 
believe  from  his  stage-pictures.  Books,  doors, 
windows,  bric-a-brac,  flowers,  everything,  however 
insignificant,  had  to  be  actual.  “Property”  counter¬ 
feits  of  all  kinds  vanished.  When  the  action  re¬ 
quires  the  reproduction  of  a  Kaffee-Klatsch,  the 
aroma  of  genuine  coffee  floats  out  over  Reinhardt’s 
footlights  and  makes  you  thirsty.  Richness  incom¬ 
parable,  wherever  in  place — Spartan  simplicity 
where  it  belongs — were  adopted  as  the  broad  gen¬ 
eral  lines  of  his  scenic  policy.  You  come  away 
from  the  Deutsches  Theater  and  the  Kammerspiele 
feeling  always  that  you  have  communed  with  the 
real  thing. 

Upon  his  players  Reinhardt  imposes  the  same 
relentless  thoroughness.  His  actors  and  actresses 
are  given  plenty  of  latitude  for  assertion  of 
individuality,  but  they  understand  that  they  are 
there  for  the  play,  not  the  play  for  them. 
He  never  produces  pieces  for  the  exploitation  of 
stars.  His  successes  are  wrought  from  painstaking 

83 


MEN  AROUND  THE  KAISER 


drilling  of  entire  casts.  The  personal  note  is  re¬ 
morselessly  subordinated  to  the  artistic,  compact 
whole. 

If  Reinhardt  is  dominated  by  any  one  single 
ideal  more  than  another,  it  is  his  theory  of  inti¬ 
mate  contact  between  players  and  audience.  He 
ventilated  it  in  his  first  managerial  venture,  the 
Ucberbrettl,  that  fantastic  form  of  theatrical  enter¬ 
tainment  which  marked  the  birth  of  the  new  century 
in  Germany. 

Sumurun,  the  Oriental  pantomime  of  exquisite 
beauty,  The  Miracle,  the  colossal  “wordless  play” 
which  fascinated  England,  and  King  CEdipus 
were  all  in  the  line  of  logical  development 
of  Reinhardt’s  intimacy  ideal — the  placing  of  the 
play  and  players  at  the  very  feet  of  their  audience, 
in  order  that  spectators  may  become  an  integral 
part  and  parcel  of  the  performance,  living  its  joys, 
enduring  its  horrors,  utterly  wrapped  up  in  what 
is  going  on  around  about  them.  Reinhardt  would 
restore  the  drama  in  other  words  to  the  ancient 
Grecian  environment,  which  is  the  mainspring  of 
another  of  his  cherished  ideals — the  creation  of 
what  he  expressively  calls  the  Theatre  of  the  Five 
Thousand.  When  he  is  able  to  produce  Euripides 
and  Sophocles  and  Shakespeare  and  Schiller  with 
casts  of  two  thousand  in  the  literal  midst  of  an 
audience  of  five  thousand  or  even  ten  thousand — the 
“intimacy”  idea  exploited  to  the  n- th  degree — Rein¬ 
hardt  will  have  approached  the  zenith  of  his  am¬ 
bition.  A  monumental  production  of  Julius  Ccesar, 

84 


MAX  REINHARDT 


which  is  now  in  rehearsal,  is  to  inaugurate  this 
most  gigantic  of  all  Reinhardtian  conceptions. 

Reinhardt  began  his  career  as  an  actor-manager 
at  the  Kleines  Theater  in  Berlin,  and  achieved  an 
initial  triumph  in  Strindberg’s  Drunkenness.  About 
this  time  a  German  production  of  Oscar  Wilde’s 
Salome  was  wrecked  by  the  Censor.  Reinhardt 
produced  it  privately,  himself  playing  a  pious 
Jewish  mendicant.  Salome  was  an  artistic  hit. 
Richard  Strauss  was  inspired  by  it  to  write  his 
opera  of  the  same  name.  Salome,  later  relinquished 
for  public  performance,  established  Wilde  in  Ger¬ 
man  favour.  Having  popularised  Strindberg  the 
Swede,  Wilde  the  Englishman,  and  Frank  Wede¬ 
kind,  a  young  German  of  their  intellectual  ilk,  Rein¬ 
hardt  now  took  up  Maxim  Gorki,  the  poet  of  Rus¬ 
sian  revolution.  Gorki’s  Night  Asylum  crowned 
Reinhardt’s  reputation  not  only  as  a  producer,  but 
as  a  player,  for  his  representation  of  the  venerable 
pilgrim  Luka  was  an  epoch-making  characterisa¬ 
tion.  Night  Asylum  achieved  a  German  record  of 
500  performances.  Then  Reinhardt  took  a  second 
and  still  larger  establishment,  the  Neues  Theater, 
where  he  scored  heavily  with  a  scintillating  pro¬ 
duction  of  Maeterlinck’s  Pelleas  and  Melisande,  and 
later  with  the  most  beautiful  version  of  A  Mid¬ 
summer  Night’s  Dream  ever  seen  on  any  stage. 
Bernard  Shaw’s  fame  had  now  crossed  the  Channel, 
and  Reinhardt’s  thirst  for  novelties  led  him  to  in¬ 
troduce  Arms  and  the  Man  and  Candida,  both  suc¬ 
cessfully. 


85 


MEN  AROUND  THE  KAISER 

When  the  Deutsches  Theater,  where  Reinhardt 
had  begun  his  career  less  than  twelve  years  pre¬ 
viously,  was  looking  for  a  new  master  in  1905,  the 
choice  fell  naturally  upon  Reinhardt.  In  the  autumn 
of  that  year  he  took  formal  possession  of  the  famous 
playhouse  in  the  Schumann-strasse,  where  he  now 
reigns  supreme.  One  of  his  introductory  produc¬ 
tions  there  was  The  Merchant  of  Venice,  which  re¬ 
vealed  afresh  his  resourcefulness  as  a  stage  wizard. 
Germany,  which  considers  Shakespeare,  to  quote  a 
piquant  epigram  of  Sir  Herbert  Tree,  a  literary 
Heligoland,  had  seen  many  “Merchants,”  but  none 
to  match  the  beauties  of  Reinhardt’s  pastelles  and 
portraits,  and  the  glorious  fidelity  to  detail  with 
which  he  caparisoned  each  and  every  scene.  Pres¬ 
ently  Reinhardt  inaugurated  his  latest  idea,  the 
theatre  intime.  For  it  he  built  the  Kammerspiele, 
next  door  to  the  Deutsches  Theater.  He  meant  it  to 
be  dedicated  exclusively  to  literary  hors  d’oeuvres. 
It  has  only  three  hundred  seats — deep,  upholstered 
armchairs.  Its  walls  are  of  red  mahogany,  and  its 
aisles  richly  carpeted  with  rugs — a  temple  where 
the  select  few  bent  upon  quiet  enjoyment  of  a 
theatrical  morsel  may  devour  it  in  immediate  proxi¬ 
mity  of  the  players  and  amid  charming  privacy. 
The  Kammerspiele,  before  its  conversion  into  a 
theatre,  had  been  a  midinettes’  dance-hall,  and  Rein¬ 
hardt’s  detractors,  with  heavy  irony,  ridiculed  the 
notion  of  a  temple  of  art  on  a  spot  enshrined  with 
the  traditions  of  Emberg’s;  but  Ibsen’s  Ghosts, 
with  which  Reinhardt  dedicated  the  Kammerspiele, 

86 


MAX  REINHARDT 


was  an  instantaneous  success,  and  the  little  play¬ 
house’s  foundation  was  vindicated  in  a  night.  Then 
followed  in  rapid  succession  more  “intimate”  pro¬ 
ductions  which  the  peculiarly  secluded  atmosphere 
made  both  possible  and  plausible — Frank  Wede¬ 
kind’s  Awakening  of  Spring,  an  inexpressibly  bold 
grapple  with  the  sexual  problem,  which  Fraulein 
Camilla  Eibenschiitz  endowed  with  a  poetically 
realistic  creation,  and  Maeterlinck's  Aglavaine 
and  Selysette,  to  mention  the  most  daring  of 
many. 

Reinhardt  is  a  believer  in  youth.  He  has  had 
little  to  do  with  finished  players.  He  prefers  to 
catch  them  young  and  infuse  them  with  his  own 
ideals.  He  educates  eight  young  people,  gifted  with 
extraordinary  talent,  free  of  charge  every  year 
at  the  Deutsches  Theater.  His  collaborators  are 
a  staff  of  young  field-marshals,  whose  loyalty  and 
devotion  another  Napoleon  might  have  envied. 
Stern,  the  alchemist  who  designs  costumes  and 
decorations  of  surpassing  beauty;  Hollander,  Gers- 
dorff,  Kahane,  Held,  Winterstein,  and  Ordynski — a 
talented  Austrian  Pole,  who  is  Reinhardt’s  minister 
for  foreign  affairs — are  all  men  still  on  the  sunny 
side  of  the  philosophic  age.  And  there  is  Edmund 
Reinhardt,  the  professor’s  brother,  as  much  a  genius 
at  the  administrative  and  business  end  of  the  the¬ 
atrical  profession  as  Max  is  in  the  domain  of 
art.  They  form  a  matchless  combination,  these 
poets,  playwrights,  stage  managers  and  advisers  of 
Reinhardt,  who  would  be  himself  the  first  to  say 

8Z 


MEN  AROUND  THE  KAISER 

that  they,  not  he,  are  the  real  architects  of  his 
greatness. 

Reinhardt  is  one  of  the  world’s  busy  men  who 
finds  time  for  a  full  and  ideal  home  life.  His  wife 
is  a  gifted  actress,  who  plays  under  the  stage  name 
of  Else  Heims,  and  they  have  two  bonny  boys  to 
whom  father  and  mother  are  passionately  attached. 
Reinhardt’s  home  in  the  Kupfergraben  in  Berlin 
breathes  the  artist  in  every  nook  and  corner, 
revealing  a  strong  predilection  for  antiques  in 
porcelain,  bronze  and  oils.  He  is  a  hard  smoker,  a 
good  Jew,  and  the  affectionate  son  of  a  widowed 
mother.  He  takes  his  vacations  in  the  Bavarian 
Tyrol,  and  his  hobbies  are  swimming  and  reading. 
He  is  approachable  and  affable,  and  if  you  are 
calling  at  the  Deutsches  Theater  for  the  first  time, 
look  for  the  most  unassuming  and  best-humoured 
man  on  the  premises,  and  it  will  be  Max  Reinhardt. 


XI 


VON  HEYDEBRAND 

EACH  recurring  February  Berlin  is  invaded 
by  a  host  of  florid-faced  giants,  wearing 
jaunty  Tyrolean  hats  and  whiskers  redolent 
of  the  soil,  who  transform  the  throbbing  capital  into 
a  bucolic  metropolis.  They  are  the  masters  of 
Germany,  these  sturdy  emissaries  of  the  Empire’s 
landowning  and  agricultural  interests,  assembled  in 
annual  conclave  to  review  their  mighty  cohorts,  and 
proclaim  afresh  the  paramountcy  of  Agrarianism 
in  shaping  the  destiny  of  the  Fatherland.  That  is 
the  aim  and  end  of  the  yearly  pow-wow  of  the 
Bund  der  Landwirte. 

Originally  instituted  as  a  parliament  for  the 
discussion  of  purely  farming  questions,  the  “week” 
has  become  a  political  event  of  the  first  magnitude. 
Its  raison  d’etre  is  to  hammer  home  the  iron  fact 
that,  although  Agrarians  represent  only  twenty- 
eight  and  six  tenths  per  cent,  of  the  population,  the 
reins  of  government  are  firmly  in  their  grasp.  It  is 
not  an  inspiring  spectacle,  this  yearly  feast  of  gloat¬ 
ing  over  Minority  Rule.  It  calls  forth  violent  pro¬ 
test  from  the  downtrodden  majority,  and  fervid 
demands  for  liberation  from  Agrarian  tyranny. 

89 


MEN  AROUND  THE  KAISER 


As  yet  no  Samson  has  arisen  capable  of  breaking 
the  power  of  the  agricultural  autocracy.  Finance, 
commerce  and  industry,  in  consequence  of  the 
Government’s  surrender  to  Agrarian  dictation  on 
the  occasion  of  the  Finance  Reform  Bill  in  1909, 
organised  the  Hansa  League  as  a  bulwark  against 
the  unceasing  encroachments  of  the  Farmers’  Alli¬ 
ance,  but  the  Junkers  still  sit  enthroned. 

It  is  small  wonder  that  Dr.  Ernst  von  Heyde- 
brand,  the  leader  of  the  Agrarian  element,  whose 
political  label  is  Conservative,  is  known  as  the 
Uncrowned  King  of  Prussia.  Though  its  numerical 
strength  neither  in  the  Imperial  Parliament  nor  the 
Prussian  Diet  is  formidable,  Conservatism’s  influ¬ 
ence  on  Government  is  paramount.  Chancellors 
challenge  it  at  their  peril.  Billow  risked  it  and 
perished.  Bethmann  Hollweg  trembles  when  Jove 
Heydebrand  frowns.  The  Kaiser  himself  is  con¬ 
strained  to  consort  publicly  and  ostentatiously  with 
the  Bundler.  In  recent  years  he  has  made  it  a 
practice  to  attend  their  annual  congress  in  Berlin 
and,  describing  himself  as  one  of  them,  participates 
actively  in  their  deliberations.  A  speech  from  the 
Throne  once  expressed  the  Royal  will  to  reform 
Prussia’s  archaic  electoral  laws.  Heydebrand  said 
no,  and  the  three-class  voting  system  remains, 
a  travesty  on  Government  conducted  under  a 
Constitution. 

Heydebrand,  like  many  German  politicians,  is  a 
member  of  both  the  Prussian  Diet  and  the  Reichs¬ 
tag.  He  leads  the  Conservative  forces  in  both 

90 


VON  HEYDEBRAND 


Houses.  Individually  almost  the  most  powerful 
man  in  German  politics,  he  is  physically  the  most 
diminutive.  He  stands  barely  five  feet  in  height, 
and  when  slouching  in  his  seat,  hands  imbedded 
deep  in  his  trousers  pockets — his  favourite  attitude 
in  repose — he  is  almost  hidden  by  the  portfolio  of 
papers  which  adorns  his  desk.  In  conversation 
with  the  elongated  Dr.  von  Bethmann  Hollweg  he 
looks  almost  a  dwarf.  Von  Heydebrand’s  whole 
bearing  is  in  keeping  with  his  exterior,  unpreten¬ 
tious  to  a  degree.  A  faithful  attendant  of  sessions 
in  a  House  which  must  frequently  adjourn  for  lack 
of  a  quorum,  he  rarely  intrudes  himself  on  the 
Reichstag’s  attention.  Listening  and  thinking  are 
his  forte.  A  forceful  orator  and  debater,  he  speaks 
only  on  extraordinary  occasions.  When  his  appear¬ 
ance  is  known  of  in  advance,  both  House  and 
galleries  fill  up. 

Von  Heydebrand,  as  becomes  a  King,  is  unac¬ 
quainted  with  fear,  and  hits  straight  from  the 
shoulder  when  he  has  something  to  say.  Although 
Conservatism  and  Government  are  boon  com¬ 
panions  and  traditional  bedfellows  in  Germany,  the 
party  takes  the  powers  that  be  unhesitatingly  to 
task  when  necessity  demands.  Von  Heydebrand  is 
the  man  who  applies  the  lash  on  these  occasions. 
He  seems  to  expand  to  the  stature  of  a  grenadier 
as  he  advances  to  the  fray,  and  you  cease  to  wonder 
that  words  of  such  power  and  invective  of  such 
incisiveness  can  spring  from  so  demure  and  minute 
a  figure.  Germany  will  not  soon  forget  the  castiga- 

91 


MEN  AROUND  THE  KAISER 


tion  he  administered  to  the  Government  in  Novem¬ 
ber,  1911,  after  the  full  dimensions  of  the  Morocco 
fiasco  were  apparent.  In  terms  of  crushing  censure 
Heydebrand  assailed  Dr.  von  Bethmann  Hollweg 
and  Herr  von  Kiderlen-Waechter  for  having  rattled 
the  sabre  at  Agadir,  only  ignominiously  to  sheathe 
it  in  craven  fear  of  perfidious  Albion.  He  recalled 
the  glories  of  Prussia,  and  reminded  the  Govern¬ 
ment  that  Germans  had  fought  best  when  they 
fought  alone  and  against  a  world  in  arms.  He 
demanded  to  know  the  why  and  wherefore  of 
the  Empire’s  colossal  armaments  on  land  and  sea 
if  the  Fatherland  were  to  retreat  at  a  critical 
moment.  A  young  officer  in  the  uniform  of  the 
Death’s  Head  Hussars  sat  in  the  Royal  box  of  the 
House,  hanging  intently  on  each  rasping  word  that 
fell  from  the  little  Conservative  leader’s  scolding 
lips.  It  was  the  Crown  Prince.  When  Heydebrand 
finished,  the  future  Kaiser  joined  spontaneously 
in  the  thunder  of  applause  which  rolled  over  the 
entire  House.  A  Jingo  harangue  of  purest  essence, 
it  yet  epitomised  outraged  German  public  sentiment 
beyond  the  shadow  of  a  doubt.  Dr.  von  Bethmann 
Hollweg’s  subsequent  rebuke  of  the  Uncrowned 
King  as  a  man  “who  carries  his  sword  in  his 
mouth”  failed  to  obliterate  the  impression  Heyde- 
brand’s  impassioned  outburst  made  upon  the 
country. 

The  forces  which  this  Napoleonic  personality 
commands  attained  power  after  the  disappearance 
of  Bismarck,  who  governed  principally  with  the  aid 

92 


VON  HEYDEBRAND 

of  mobile  National  Liberal  majorities.  The  so-called 
Caprivi  era,  that  of  the  second  Chancellorship, 
gave  Agrarianism  its  chance.  Count  Caprivi,  the 
soldier-statesman,  had  effected  a  series  of  long-term 
commercial  treaties  with  Germany’s  neighbours, 
deliberately  favouring  the  country’s  then  budding 
industry  at  the  expense  of  agriculture.  He  bartered 
low  rates  on  Russian  wheat,  Austrian  rye,  Danish 
meats  and  dairy  products  and  Hungarian  barley  for 
preferential  duties  on  German  manufactures.  His 
treaties  were  the  logical  expression  of  Germany’s 
conversion  from  an  agricultural  into  an  industrial 
State.  Endless  warfare  between  Agrarianism  and 
business  ensued.  To  annihilate  the  Caprivi  treaties 
at  their  expiration  in  1902  and  substitute  pacts  of 
genuinely  Agrarian  flavour  became  the  consuming 
ambition  of  the  land  barons  of  East  and  West 
Prussia,  Pomerania,  Mecklenburg,  Silesia  and  Bran¬ 
denburg.  Prince  Biilow  was  to  be  made  to  atone 
for  the  treachery  of  Count  Caprivi.  Atone  he 
did.  He  donned  the  Junker  yoke  publicly  at  a 
banquet,  at  which  he  declared  that  his  fondest 
wish  was  for  an  epitaph  reading:  “I  was  an 
Agrarian  Chancellor.”  In  1902,  under  his  auspices, 
an  Agrarian  tariff  was  enacted  by  the  Reichstag. 
On  its  basis  new  treaties  were  concluded  which 
betrayed  German  industry  relentlessly  in  order  that 
grain,  cattle  and  dairy  products  might  benefit. 
The  position  conquered  by  German  industry  abroad 
under  Caprivian  conditions  was  almost  demolished. 
Pioneering  work  of  twelve  years  had  to  be  com- 

93 


MEN  AROUND  THE  KAISER 


menced  all  over  again.  That  German  exports, 
almost  exclusively  of  manufactured  origin,  amount 
to-day  to  $2,250,000,000  per  annum,  is  no  fault  of 
Herr  von  Heydebrand  and  the  self-centred  patriots 
whose  version  of  the  national  anthem  is : 

“Unser  Konig  absolut, 

Wenn  er  unseren  Willen  tut!” 

(We  are  for  an  absolutist  King,  provided  he  does 
our  will!) 

Throne  and  monarchy  have  always  been  ear¬ 
marked  by  the  Junkers  of  Prussia  as  their  particular 
watch  and  ward.  Their  bosoms  swell  several 
degrees  more  expansively  than  the  chests  of  or¬ 
dinary  Germans  when  the  talk  is  of  loyalty  to  the 
King.  They  are  the  self-appointed  guardians  of  the 
orthodox  creed.  The  emblem  of  their  official  news¬ 
paper  is  a  cross  wreathed  by  a  motto  proclaiming 
Conservatism’s  partnership  with  Deity.  Govern¬ 
ment,  the  Army,  diplomacy — all  the  great  services 
of  the  State  except  the  Navy,  where  proved  efficiency 
is  still  the  requirement — are  practically  the 
monopoly  of  Conservative  Vons.  A  Simon  Pure 
Agrarian  like  Heydebrand  eats  a  Socialist  alive 
every  morning  for  breakfast.  He  frequently  makes 
a  dessert  of  a  merchant  or  a  banker.  He  shares 
unqualifiedly  the  Hohenzollerns’  belief  that  they 
rule  by  right  Divine.  Herr  von  Oldenburg,  a 
paladin  of  Heydebrand,  once  gave  expression  to  the 
typically  Agrarian  theory  that  the  Kaiser  ought 
to  have  authority  to  order  “a  lieutenant  and  ten 
men”  to  close  up  the  Reichstag  any  time  it  grew; 

94 


VON  HEYDEBRAND 


refractory.  When  the  rest  of  the  country  was 
lampooning  Emperor  William  for  his  loquacious 
confidences  to  the  Daily  Telegraph,  his  only  de¬ 
fenders  were  the  land-barons,  who  are  reared  in  the 
religion  that  Prussia’s  King  can  do  no  harm.  Von 
Heydebrand’s  plaid  oyer  on  behalf  of  the  Kaiser  was 
one  of  the  most  striking  public  utterances  of  contem¬ 
porary  German  history.  Likewise,  it  was  the  death 
warrant  of  Prince  Billow. 

When  the  Conservative  generalissimo  is  not  at 
work  in  Berlin,  he  leads  the  life  of  a  retired  country 
gentleman  at  his  splendid  estate  of  Klein- 
Tschunkawe  in  Silesia.  His  abode  is  a  rambling, 
ivy-covered  building  reconstructed  to  resemble  a 
feudal  castle.  Before  its  portal  is  a  modest  monu¬ 
ment,  an  eagle  rampant  on  a  sphere  of  rock,  erected 
in  honour  of  the  hundredth  anniversary  of  the 
family’s  ownership  of  Klein-Tschunkawe.  The 
walls  of  the  castle  are  hung  with  trophies  of  the 
chase,  for  the  lord  of  the  manor,  like  every  German 
Gutsherr,  is  a  passionate  hunter.  Throughout  the 
simply  furnished  house  are  canvasses  of  earlier 
members  of  the  Hey  debrand  dynasty.  Restfulness 
is  the  dominant  note.  It  is  the  retreat  of  a  man 
who  returns  from  the  fray  eager  for  the  repose  of 
home.  Though  politics  are  his  forte,  pigs  and  horses 
and  rye-fields  are  Heydebrand’s  hobbies,  and  his 
friends  assert  he  is  far  happier  running  his  farm 
than  bossing  the  Government. 

Dr.  Heydebrand’s  strength — his  full  name  is 
Von  Iieydebrand  und  der  Lasa — is  essentially  the 

95 


MEN  AROUND  THE  KAISER 


power  of  personality.  He  is  not  imperious  by 
nature,  nor  greedy  for  domination.  A  barrister  by 
profession,  he  has  been  in  public  life  for  twenty- 
five  years,  and  was  sixty-three  years  old  on  his  last 
birthday.  Sprung  from  the  soil  which  has  produced 
Prussia’s  greatest  rulers,  warriors  and  statesmen,  he 
is  of  the  class  which  regards  itself  ordained  to  sway 
the  destinies  of  Imperial  Germany.  Bismarck  was 
one  of  its  products,  and  the  career  of  Heydebrand 
bears  witness  that  the  Agrarians  of  to-day  are  men 
of  blood  and  iron  too. 


XII 


RICHARD  STRAUSS 

SEEKERS  of  sidelights  on  Richard  Strauss, 
the  man  as  distinguished  from  the  musician — 
on  the  purely  human  in  him — stumble  first 
and  invariably  on  anecdotes  of  his  parsimony. 
However  niggardly  Strauss  may  be  in  matters  of 
money,  there  is  nothing  stingy  about  him  when  it 
comes  to  noise.  In  production  of  tonal  volume  he 
is  lavishness  personified.  He  has  made  the  cyclonic 
diapasons  of  Wagner  seem  like  whispers,  and  has 
out-thundered  Thor.  In  the  storm  and  stress  period 
which  followed  the  humbling  of  France,  when  New 
Germany  was  more  interested  in  the  production  of 
dividends  than  music,  Apollo  had  no  exponents  of 
the  first  magnitude.  With  the  death  of  Wagner  in 
1883  there  was  destined  to  be  a  long  interval  before 
German  music  should  again  give  forth  a  genius 
in  the  person  of  another  Richard.  Perhaps  the 
psychology  of  Strauss’  noise  lies  in  his  conviction 
that  after  so  prolonged  a  period  of  obliteration,  it 
was  necessary  for  artistic  Germany  to  affirm  its 
musical  reincarnation  in  no  uncertain  tones.  At 
any  rate,  when  Don  Quixote,  Heldcnlcben,  Till 
Eulenspiegel,  and  the  Symphonia  Doniestica  burst 

97 


MEN  AROUND  THE  KAISER 


upon  the  world,  it  was  manifest  that  the  reign  and 
times  of  William  II.  were  to  be  illumined  by  a 
master  worthy  of  the  race  of  Beethoven,  Brahms 
and  Mozart. 

Richard  Strauss  is  the  Bernard  Shaw  of  music 
or  vice  versa.  Both  are  confessed  revolutionaries. 
Both  waded  into  the  chosen  careers  with  death  to 
conventionalities  emblazoned  on  their  standards. 
Both  were  bent  on  and  succeeded  in  making  a 
mighty  noise  in  the  world.  Both  have  thriven  on 
abuse.  Both  have  exploited  the  vehicle  which  has 
given  them  most  of  their  vogue,  the  stage,  as  a 
weapon  for  hitting  at  their  critics.  Shaw  has 
already  collaborated  with  one  Strauss — Oskar — in 
the  production  of  a  musical  play;  at  least  Anns  and 
the  Man  furnished  the  plot.  What  a  riot  of  audacity 
the  phantasy  of  a  grand  opera  by  Richard  Strauss, 
book  by  Bernard  Shaw,  conjures  up !  The  gaiety 
of  nations,  preceding  additions  to  the  contrary 
notwithstanding,  would  hardly  have  seen  its  like 
before. 

Dr.  Strauss’  place  among  the  elite  of  his  profes¬ 
sion  has  been  secure  now  for  much  more  than  a 
decade.  It  was  not  easily  or  rapidly  acquired.  The 
German  Emperor  and  Empress,  for  example,  even 
yet  consider  him  too  seditiously  modern  to  merit 
their  Imperial  patronage,  though  Salome ,  Electra, 
The  Rose  Cavalier  and  Ariadne  auf  Naxos,  at  raised 
prices,  are  the  most  potent  diminishers  of  deficits  at 
the  Kaiser’s  royal  opera.  The  anti-Strauss  school  is 
still  numerous  and  highly  articulate.  But  his  star 

98 


RICHARD  STRAUSS 


has  long  since  been  irresistibly  in  the  ascendant, 
and  two  hemispheres  have  accepted  him  as  the 
Mcister  of  the  generation.  There  is  disagreement 
only  as  to  whether  Strauss’  gifts  are  those  of 
genius  or  merely  of  talent. 

If  Strauss  had  not  elected  to  seek  fame  chiefly  as 
a  composer  he  would  have  challenged  the  world’s 
attention  as  a  conductor.  Many  acclaim  him  as 
Europe’s  peerless  orchestral  leader.  Totally  devoid 
of  mannerisms  and  ostentation,  he  directs  with  a 
sovereignty  which  stamps  a  symphonic  or  operatic 
score  with  incomparable  individuality.  Whether  it 
be  Verdi  or  Gounod  or  himself  that  he  is  interpret¬ 
ing,  there  is  a  sureness  about  his  readings  which 
both  instrumentalists  and  singers  will  tell  you 
invariably  makes  for  superior  performance.  Strauss’ 
career  as  a  conductor  began  in  1885  under  Hans 
von  Billow,  at  whose  invitation  the  young  composer 
led  the  Meiningen  Court  orchestra  at  a  concert, 
which  included  a  four-movement  suite  of  his  own 
for  wind  instruments.  To  Billow  Strauss  himself 
is  disposed  to  give  much  of  the  credit  for  implanting 
in  him  the  seeds  of  ultra-modernity,  of  which  he 
has  become  the  arch-priest. 

Dr.  Strauss’  highly  developed  sense  of  the  com¬ 
mercial  beauty  of  art  cannot  be  traced  to  any  of 
the  causes  which  have  acquainted  so  many  geniuses 
with  the  woes  of  poverty.  He  was  born  with  a 
baton  in  his  hand  and  a  check-book  in  his  mouth, 
for  his  father  was  a  Munich  orchestra-player  and 
his  mother  a  Pschorr,  a  daughter  of  the  immensely 

99 


MEN  AROUND  THE  KAISER 


wealthy  brewery  dynasty  which  helped  to  make 
Bavaria  famous.  Strauss  is  several  times  a  million¬ 
aire  in  German  marks.  His  inherited  fortune  has 
been  vastly  increased  by  rich  song  and  operatic 
royalties,  and  by  astute  investments,  in  which  he  is 
understood  to  enjoy  the  counsel  of  a  well-known 
London  banker  and  transportation  magnate.  Strauss 
approaches  the  task  of  selling  an  opera  with  the 
finesse  of  a  Wall  Street  trust  magnate.  The  con¬ 
tracts  he  submitted  to  an  American  manager  for 
the  production  of  The  Rose  Cavalier  in  London  and 
New  York  would  have  done  credit  to  the  Standard 
Oil  Company. 

Dr.  Strauss’  determination  to  make  America  pay 
famine  prices  for  the  privilege  of  hearing  The  Rose 
Cavalier,  which  is  still  unproduced  there,  may  be 
due  to  the  grudge  he  bears  Uncle  Sam  for  the  early 
rejection  of  Salome.  The  Metropolitan  Opera  of 
New  York,  after  having  rehearsed  Salome,  sup¬ 
pressed  it  on  grounds  of  blasphemy  and  immorality. 
Asked  what  he  thought  of  the  boycott,  Strauss 
replied:  “Of  all  human  vices  the  most  detestable 
to  me  is  hypocrisy.” 

Like  all  the  truly  great,  a  whole  literature  of 
anecdotes  has  grown  up  around  Strauss.  For  the 
most  part  they  concern  his  revolutionary  artistic 
canons.  Many  are  true;  others,  so  characteristic 
that  they  deserve  to  be.  One  of  the  best  rests  on 
fact.  After  the  Kaiser  had  heard  Salome,  he 
remarked  to  the  impresario  who  produced  it : 
“I’m  sure  I  don’t  know  what  Strauss  is  trying  to 

ioo 


RICHARD  STRAUSS 


convey,  but  he  writes  excellent  marches.”  Due, 
it  is  reputed,  to  the  lively  repugnance  of  the  Kaiserin 
for  Strauss  and  all  his  works,  the  Kaiser  has  never 
honoured  the  composer  with  the  Imperial  favour. 
Royal  auditors  are  rare  at  Strauss  productions  at 
the  Berlin  Opera,  though  the  composer  holds  the 
rank  of  general  music  director  at  the  temple  of 
operatic  art,  which  His  Majesty  subsidises.  It  was 
many  years  before  Strauss  could  break  into  the 
charmed  circle  of  immortals  who  claim  membership 
in  the  Berlin  Academy.  Unpopularity  in  exalted 
quarters  was  commonly  ascribed  as  the  reason  for 
his  ostracism. 

Strauss  makes  no  secret  of  his  passion  for  the 
bizarre  in  orchestral  effects,  of  which  he  is  primarily 
a  master-builder.  He  is  at  the  zenith  of  his  creative 
glory  when  evolving  weird  themes  or  Niagara  roars 
from  demoniacal  blendings  of  reeds,  winds,  strings 
and  brasses.  Tearing  down  the  centre  aisle  of  the 
Royal  Opera  at  Dresden  during  the  general  re¬ 
hearsal  of  Electra,  that  monumental  example  of 
musical  uproar,  Dr.  Strauss  suddenly  commanded  a 
halt  in  the  performance.  Madame  Schumann-Heink, 
the  Clytemnestra,  was  in  the  throes  of  a  tumultuous 
aria.  Beads  of  perspiration  already  bespangled  the 
brows  of  the  hard-working  orchestra.  “Louder, 
louder!”  shrieked  Strauss.  “I  can  still  hear  the 
singing!”  When  Salome  was  in  rehearsal,  the 
tenor  who  was  struggling  with  the  Herod  role 
strayed  far  from  the  key.  The  conductor  stopped 
short  to  bring  the  wayward  one  back  to  the  score. 

IOI 


MEN  AROUND  THE  KAISER 


Strauss  interposed.  “Grossartig!”  he  exclaimed. 
“Burrian  has  given  just  the  effect  I  wanted!” 
Prof.  Heinrich  Griinfeld,  a  Berlin  ’cellist,  who 
fiddles  and  tells  stories  equally  well,  summed  up  the 
philosophy  of  the  anti-Strauss  school  after  hearing 
The  Rose  Cavalier.  That  tuneful  creation  was 
Strauss’  first  concession  to  melody  in  opera  as 
distinguished  from  sheer  thematic  idiosyncrasies. 
It  contains  a  Viennese  waltz  number  which  would 
fit  into  The  Merry  Widow  or  The  Chocolate  Soldier 
as  if  made  for  them.  Asked  his  opinion  of  The 
Rose  Cavalier,  Griinfeld  said:  “Well,  if  it  has  to 
be  Richard,  then  I  prefer  Wagner;  if  it  has  to 
be  Strauss,  give  me  Johann.” 

Strauss  is  forty-nine  years  old  this  summer. 
His  admirers,  now  legion,  have  every  reason  to 
hope  that  he  is  only  at  the  threshold  of  his  most 
productive  years.  He  divides  his  time  between  his 
idyllic  summer  home  at  Garmisch,  one  of  the  pic¬ 
turesque  villages  of  the  Upper  Tyrol,  in  his  native 
Bavaria,  and  a  suburban  menage  in  Berlin  when 
not  concertising  abroad.  It  is  at  Villa  Garmisch 
where  Strauss  does  most  of  his  composing,  amid  an 
ultra-exclusive  privacy  which  only  the  favoured  few 
are  privileged  to  invade.  The  decorative  features 
of  the  house  are  completely  at  variance  with  the 
sacrilegious  ideals  which  popular  misconception 
associates  with  the  composer  of  Salome,  for  the 
gems  of  Strauss’  art  collections  are  pictures  of 
saints  and  sacred  subjects  of  all  kinds.  Almost  every 
available  inch  of  wall  space  is  plastered  with  them, 

102 


RICHARD  STRAUSS 


mostly  paintings  on  the  reverse  side  of  glass, 
through  which  the  brilliant  colours  are  effectively 
reflected.  The  only  secular  personage  in  this  com¬ 
pany  of  martyrs  is  Frederick  the  Great,  one  of 
Strauss’  heroes.  The  composer’s  study  is  a  baronial 
hall  sort  of  apartment,  with  huge  windows  looking 
out  on  the  glorious  panorama  of  the  Kramar  Moun¬ 
tains  at  the  foot  of  which  Villa  Garmisch  nestles. 
A  spreading  writing  table,  littered  with  manuscript, 
a  grand  piano,  a  music-stand,  an  inconspicuous  set 
of  book  shelves,  and  a  few  landscapes  comprise  the 
furnishings  of  the  wizard’s  workshop.  Strauss  is  a 
clever  pianist  and  strums  his  themes  before  reducing 
them  to  notes  and  bars.  His  hobby  is  Skat,  the 
German  national  card  game,  which  he  plays  passion¬ 
ately  and  well.  He  is  invariably  armed  with  paper 
and  pencil  for  the  jotting  down  of  spur-of-the- 
moment  inspirations.  The  Leitmotif  of  Electra, 
he  says,  came  to  him  during  a  game  of  Skat.  It 
must  have  been  a  particularly  tempestuous  round. 

“At  Garmisch,”  Strauss  once  imparted  to  a 
visitor,  “thanks  to  my  dear  wife,  who  is  a  true 
intellectual  companion  for  me,  and  thanks  to  my 
beloved  boy,  I  have  that  delightful  peace  which  I 
long  for  and  need.  Here  composition  comes  easiest 
for  me,  and  this  is  my  favourite  place  for  working, 
even  in  winter.  As  for  the  rest,  I  compose  every¬ 
where,  in  noisy  international  hotels,  in  my  garden 
and  in  railway  carriages.  My  notebook  is  always 
with  me,  whether  I  am  walking  or  riding,  eating  or 
drinking;  I  am  never  without  it,  and  as  soon  as  a 

103 


MEN  AROUND  THE  KAISER 


suitable  motive  for  the  theme  upon  which  I  am 
working  occurs  to  me,  it  is  entrusted  to  my  most 
faithful  companion.  The  ideas  that  I  note  down 
are  only  sketches,  which  I  arrange  afterward,  but 
before  I  improvise  the  least  preparatory  sketch  of 
an  opera,  I  occupy  myself  for  six  months  with  the 
text.  I  simply  steep  myself  in  it,  and  study  into 
the  situations  and  characters  down  to  the  finest 
detail.  Then  I  begin  to  give  rein  to  my  musical 
thoughts.  From  my  memoranda  I  make  sketches, 
which  are  afterward  copied  and  joined  together  in 
the  piano  part,  which  I  alter  and  re-edit  four  times. 
That  is  the  exhausting  part  of  the  work;  what 
follows,  the  score,  the  great  colour  scheme  for  the 
orchestra,  is  for  me  recreation  and  refreshes  me 
again.  I  write  on  the  score  continuously  and  with¬ 
out  any  difficulty,  keeping  at  it  in  my  workroom 
twelve  hours  on  a  stretch.  In  this  way  I  attain 
uniformity,  which  is  the  chief  requisite.  In  this 
many  of  our  composers  are  lacking.  If  they  would 
take  any  part  of  a  Wagner  tone-drama  or  a  Mozart 
finale  as  an  example,  they  could  not  fail  to  recognise 
and  admire  the  unity  in  all  parts.  It  is  like  a  gar¬ 
ment  made  from  one  kind  of  material.  Many  of 
our  composers  seek  to  dazzle  us  with  detached  ideas, 
melodies  that  appear  here  and  there  and  are  at 
once  striking.  The  effect  is  like  a  garment  made 
of  odd  pieces,  among  which  many  may  be  very 
pretty  and  brilliant  in  colour;  but  all  the  same  it 
is  only  patchwork.” 

Modern  and  retiring,  Strauss  has  the  geniality 
104 


RICHARD  STRAUSS 


as  well  as  the  brogue  of  his  beloved  South  Germany, 
and  likes  best  the  companionship  of  kindred  artistic 
spirits.  He  is  bored  to  distraction  by  the  wiles  of 
would-be  lionisers.  A  sycophantic  admirer  who 
once  assured  him  that  he  was  the  Buddha  of  modern 
music  was  told  in  reply:  “I’m  not  so  sure  about 
that,  but  I  know  who  the  pest  is.”  Strauss  is  a 
prodigious  worker  and  composes  at  lightning  speed. 
He  has  been  known  simply  to  dash  off  great  songs. 
Feuersnot,  Salome,  Electra,  The  Rose  Cavalier  and 
Ariadne  span  a  period  of  less  than  eleven  years. 
He  is  a  stickler  for  regular  habits,  and  always  takes 
a  “rest  cure”  of  several  weeks  before  dedicating 
himself  to  a  great  work  like  a  new  opera.  Then 
it  absorbs  him  undividedly.  One  of  his  striking 
qualities  is  bland  composure.  At  rehearsals,  when 
even  the  imperturbable  Reinhardt,  who  with 
Hofmannsthal,  librettist,  completes  the  Strauss 
operatic  triumvirate,  forgets  himself  and  explodes, 
Strauss  sits  unruffled  till  things  right  themselves. 

Tall  and  gaunt,  with  receding  hair,  which  is 
beginning  to  look  Beethovenesque  in  its  scraggly 
abandon,  Strauss’  predominant  physical  feature  is 
a  bulging  convex  forehead.  From  the  grey  matter 
behind  it,  beyond  all  peradventure,  creations 
destined  to  add  fresh  lustre  to  his  name  will  yet 
spring. 


XIII 


PROFESSOR  DELBRUCK 

IT  was  Lord  Palmerston  who  once  described 
Germany  as  “that  damned  land  of  professors.” 
In  his  mind  were  the  luminaries  of  eighteenth 
and  nineteenth  century  Romanticism  who  blazed  the 
way  for  the  physical,  moral  and  political  regenera¬ 
tion  which,  in  turn,  was  to  crush  the  French  op¬ 
pressor,  reconstruct  Prussia,  inaugurate  an  intellec¬ 
tual  renaissance,  win  the  revolution  of  1848,  and 
unify  Germany.  They  were  the  “German  ideolo¬ 
gists”  of  Napoleon’s  contempt,  whom  the  Father- 
land  is  canonising  in  this  year  of  centenary — 
Schleiermacher,  the  theologian,  who,  while  the 
supreme  humilation  of  Jena  still  burnt  in  the  soul 
of  his  enslaved  people,  wrote  that  “Germany  will 
rise  with  unexpected  might,  worthy  of  her  ancient 
heroes  and  her  inborn  strength” ;  Fichte,  the  philos¬ 
opher,  who,  in,  his  “Addresses  to  the  Nation,” 
aroused  his  shackled  and  despoiled  countrymen  to 
“replace  what  they  had  lost  in  the  physical  resources 
by  moral  strength,”  and  told  the  downtrodden 
Germans  that  it  was  “they  on  whom  the  future  of 
the  world  depended” ;  Alexander  von  Humboldt, 
who  co-operated  with  Schleiermacher  and  Fichte 

106 


PROFESSOR  DELBRUCK 


in  the  establishment  of  the  University  of  Berlin, 
and  with  them  preached  the  gospel  of  public  educa¬ 
tion  as  the  true  basis  of  national  greatness;  Savigny, 
the  jurist;  Nietzsche,  “that  half-inspired,  half-crazy 
poet-philosopher’’ ;  Virchow,  Treitschke  and  Momm¬ 
sen,  the  outstanding  triumvirate  of  the  Bismarck- 
ian  era.  These  were  the  field-marshals  of  German 
thought  before  and  during  the  blood  and  iron  age. 
They  are  long  since  gathered  to  their  fathers,  but 
their  ideals  survive. 

To-day  it  is  still  the  professors  who  expound  the 
doctrine  that  the  Germans  are  the  Urvolk,  to  whom 
the  great  heritage  belongs.  The  ascendancy  of  no 
single  other  caste  excels  their  influence  on  affairs 
of  State.  Professors  of  divinity  and  history  are 
among  the  favourite  councillors  of  the  Kaiser.  A 
professor  has  become  Prime  Minister  of  Bavaria. 
Another  has  represented  Germany  at  two  Hague 
Conferences.  Still  another  co-operates  in  the  leader¬ 
ship  of  the  National  Liberal  Party.  It  is  from 
Harnack,  Delitzsch  and  Pfleiderer,  the  theologians ; 
from  Wagner,  Schmoller  and  Bernhard,  the  politi¬ 
cal-economists;  from  Schiemann,  Meyer  and  Del- 
briick,  the  historians;  from  Haeckel  and  Ostwald, 
the  philosophers;  from  Zorn,  Kohler  and  Von  Liszt, 
the  jurists,  that  modern,  mighty,  material  Germany 
derives  its  chief  intellectual  inspiration.  Mr.  Arnold 
Bennett  might  write  another  “Milestones”  round 
the  unerring  accuracy  with  which  the  history  of 
German  thought-moulding  has  repeated  itself.  As 
the  professors  of  1813  vowed  to  Vassal  Prussia  that 

107 


MEN  AROUND  THE  KAISER 


her  day  would  yet  dawn,  so  it  is  their  progeny  in 
the  Kaiser’s  epoch  which  is  educating  the  nation 
to  believe  in  the  glory  that  will  be  Germany’s  when 
the  British  Empire  crumbles  and  the  Monroe  Doc¬ 
trine  is  blown  into  oblivion.  It  is  they  who  are 
inculcating  in  Germans  the  sinfulness  of  arbitration 
treaties  and  the  blessings  of  armaments. 

Foremost  among  the  apostles  of  the  forward 
movement  in  Germany  in  the  age  of  Tirpitz  and 
Ballin  is  Professor  Plans  Delbriick,  successor  of 
Treitschke  in  the  Chair  of  History  at  the  University 
of  Berlin.  He  stands  out  from  among  the  scholarly 
many  because  of  his  independence,  influence  and 
wider  audience.  His  fellow  professors  confine 
their  activities  more  or  less  to  guiding  the  flower 
of  German  intelligence  as  it  filters  through  their 
class-rooms  at  the  Universities.  In  the  Prcussisclie 
Jahrbiicher,  the  monthly  review  which  he  edits, 
Delbriick  addresses  the  country.  The  master  of  a 
trenchant  pen,  he  does  not  indulge  in  the  tricks  of 
language  one  encounters  in  the  Zukunft,  nor  splutter 
with  the  vehemence  of  Harden,  and  his  views  are 
immeasurably  more  representative  of  authoritative 
opinion.  A  fervid  apostle  of  Greater  Germany, 
Delbriick  is  neither  a  Pan-German  nor  a  Jingo. 
When  he  speaks,  you  hear  the  voice  of  the  ruling 
classes. 

Fearlessness  is  Delbriick’s  distinguishing  charac¬ 
teristic.  He  remains  an  intrepid  disciple  of  the 
Hegel  philosophy,  despite  modern  views  of  its 
heresy.  No  publicist  reared  in  such  intimate  con- 

108 


PROFESSOR  DELBRUCK 

tact  with  the  powers — he  was  long  a  member  of  the 
Imperial  household  in  the  capacity  of  a  teacher — 
sails  so  close  as  Delbriick  to  the  wind  of  frank 
expression.  Nominally  a  Staatsbeamtcr,  as  a  mem¬ 
ber  of  the  faculty  of  a  Prussian  university,  he  tilts 
at  Government  gleefully.  His  political  foes  once 
labelled  him  the  attorney-general  of  the  Social 
Democrats,  Poles,  Guelphs  and  other  enemies  of 
the  existing  order.  They  have  never  forgiven 
his  assertion  that  the  Socialist  Party  became  an 
indispensable  factor  in  German  politics  after  the 
Reichstag,  under  its  aggressive  leadership,  rejected 
the  Government’s  notorious  Lex  Hcinse  which 
would  have  thrown  back  German  literary  and  artistic 
development  ioo  years. 

To-day  Delbriick  is  the  spokesman-in-chief  of 
that  overwhelming  body  of  German  public  sentiment 
which  insistently  clamours  for  “more  room  in  the 
sun,”  and  the  right  to  wrest  it  by  force  of  arms  if 
need  be.  An  encyclopaedic  symposium  could  not 
more  exhaustively  interpret  Germany’s  world- 
grievances  and  world-ambitions  than  the  terse 
presentation  of  the  case  given  me  by  Delbriick  a 
few  months  ago. 

“The  German  people,”  he  said,  “since  attaining 
unity  as  a  great  nation,  have  gradually  reached  the 
determination  not  to  permit  the  world  to  be 
divided  up  among  other  Powers,  but  to  de¬ 
mand  their  portion  of  it.  Since  1871,  particularly 
within  the  past  fifteen  years,  enormous  and  pro¬ 
ductive  territories  have  been  continually  seized 

109 


MEN  AROUND  THE  KAISER 


or  occupied  by  strong  nations.  Britain  has  con¬ 
quered  a  new  Empire  in  South  Africa.  America 
has  acquired  the  Philippines,  the  Hawaiian  Islands 
and  Porto  Rico,  and  imposed  her  hegemony  over 
the  West  Indies  and  Central  America.  Japan 
has  annexed  Corea  and  is  dividing  Manchuria  and 
Mongolia  with  Russia.  England  and  Russia  are 
absorbing  Persia.  France  has  pocketed  Morocco. 
Austria-Hungary  has  annexed  Bosnia  and  Herze¬ 
govina.  Italy  has  taken  Tripoli.  The  Balkan 
States  have  partitioned  the  Turkish  Empire.  All 
these  are  natural  processes.  Germany  has  no 
reason  to  oppose  them.  But  she  wants  her  share. 
For  this  object  she  needs  a  fleet. 

“England  in  particular,  and  nearly  all  other 
Powers,  still  refuse  to  recognise  the  natural  demand 
of  Germany  for  full  equality  in  world  politics. 
That  was  demonstrated  afresh  in  the  Morocco 
affair,  when  by  supporting  France  in  order  to  reduce 
our  ‘compensation’  demands  to  the  minimum  in¬ 
stead  of  acknowledging  their  reasonableness,  Britain 
proved  that  she  was  our  inveterate  enemy.  Ger¬ 
many’s  inevitable  answer  was  a  fresh  increase  in 
both  her  Army  and  Navy. 

“Mr.  Balfour  tells  us  we  must  not  expect  English¬ 
men  to  support  our  aims  in  the  direction  of  terri¬ 
torial  expansion.  What  remains  then  for  us,  ex¬ 
cept  to  enforce  the  accomplishment  of  our  purposes 
by  strengthened  armaments?  You  ask  on  what  terms 
Germany  wants  peace  and  friendship  with  England. 
Well,  for  one  thing,  we  cannot  and  will  not  ever 

no 


PROFESSOR  DELBRUCK 

again  tolerate  such  malicious  interference  with 
legitimate  German  aspirations  as  British  interven¬ 
tion  in  our  negotiations  with  France  in  1911.  Eng¬ 
land  must  abandon  her  dog-in-the-manger  attitude 
of  uncompromising  hostility  if  war  between  us  is 
to  be  averted.  Enmity  to  Germany  must  no  longer 
be  the  keynote  of  British  foreign  policy.  All  this 
must  change  if  Europe  is  to  be  relieved  of  the  night¬ 
mare  which  has  hung  over  it  for  more  than  a  decade. 
We  do  not  ask  that  the  change  take  specific  form. 
All  we  wish  is  that  a  different  British  spirit  shall  pre¬ 
vail  when  international  issues  are  under  discussion. 
We  are  tired  of  meeting  British  obstruction  at  every 
turning — whether  it  be  Walfisch  Bay,  the  Baghdad 
Railway,  Morocco,  China,  the  Persian  Gulf,  the 
Portuguese  colonies,  or  wherever  else  German  dip¬ 
lomacy  presumes  to  show  its  hand.  All  we  expect 
from  England  is  what  Mr.  Roosevelt  calls  ‘a  square 
deal.’ 

“The  world’s  theory  that  Germany  is  land-hun¬ 
gry  is  a  myth.  Germany  is  a  land  of  immigration, 
not  emigration.  Our  total  emigration  has  fallen 
to  about  25,000.  To  us  every  year  come  hundreds 
of  thousands  of  immigrant  labourers  from  the 
East.  We  want  markets,  not  territory.  That  was 
the  mainspring  of  our  rencontre  with  France  over 
Morocco.  We  want  no  coaling  stations  in  remote 
corners  of  the  seven  seas.  Coaling  stations  mean 
fortifications  and  garrisons — burial  grounds  for 
subsidies  in  peace  and  vulnerable  outposts  in  war. 

“Will  Britons  never  rid  themselves  of  the  night- 
111 


MEN  AROUND  THE  KAISER 


mare  that  Germany  wants  war  with  England?  We 
do  not  want  war  with  England  because  we  know 
perfectly  well  that  it  has  nothing  to  bring  us,  even 
if  we  should  win.  Could  we  take  and  hold  Egypt 
perhaps,  or  Ireland,  or  British  South  Africa,  or 
Canada,  or  Australia?  Is  the  German  regime  so 
beloved  by  the  Arabs,  the  Irish,  the  Dutch,  or  the 
French-Canadians,  or  the  Britons  oversea,  that 
they  would  accept  it  without  making  us  fight, 
and  fight  interminably,  to  impose  it  upon  them? 
If  Germany  humbled  Britain  in  war,  it  would  not 
be  six  months  before  we  should  find  ourselves 
precisely  in  the  desperate  position  of  Napoleon  I. — 
the  masters  of  Europe,  with  all  Europe  united  to 
encompass  our  overthrow.  That  is  a  vision  the 
business  Germany,  the  sane  and  sensible  Germany 
of  1913,  conjures  up,  only  to  banish  as  wild  and 
irresponsible. 

“Let  me  summarise:  The  abandonment  of  un¬ 
worthy  suspicions ;  the  acknowledgment  of  our  right 
to  grow  and  to  participate  in  shaping  the  world’s 
destinies;  the  expression  of  an  honest  desire  to 
reach  an  understanding;  formal  diplomatic  steps 
in  that  direction;  simultaneous  withdrawal  of 
arbitrary  opposition  to  legitimate  German  political 
aspirations — those  are  the  things  we  await  from 
England.  If  she  has  no  inclination  to  meet  us  on 
that  ground,  if  her  interests  rather  point  to  a 
perpetuation  of  the  anything-to-beat-Germany 
policy,  so  let  it  be.  The  Armageddon  which  must 
then,  some  day,  ensue  will  not  be  of  our  making.” 

112 


PROFESSOR  DELBRUCK 


Professor  Delbruck  is  in  his  sixty-fifth  year.  He 
is  one  of  the  Germans  who  have  solved  the  problem 
of  growing  old  gracefully  and  keeping  their  pristine 
energy  at  concert-pitch.  An  indefatigable  reader 
and  writer,  he  gives  much  of  his  time  to  the  recep¬ 
tion  of  distinguished  foreign  visitors  anxious  to 
hear  straightforward  German  public  opinion  at  the 
fountain  head.  His  workshop  is  a  picturesque 
home  in  the  Grunewald  forest  on  the  western  out¬ 
skirts  of  Berlin,  not  far  from  that  other  intrepid 
matador,  Maximilian  Harden.  Its  tables  and  shelves 
are  usually  crammed  with  English,  French  and 
American  books,  periodicals  and  newspapers.  Del- 
briick  keeps  thoroughly  abreast  of  thought  and 
movements  abroad. 

Delbruck  first  saw  the  light  on  the  Baltic  island 
of  Riigen,  off  the  coast  of  Pomerania,  in  1848. 
Born  in  the  year  of  Prussian  revolution,  the  spirit 
of  independence  which  stirred  German  souls  in 
those  troublous  hours  seems  to  have  infected  his 
whole  being.  The  ideals  of  the  ’48-ers  are  the  ones 
for  which  Delbriick  has  been  a  protagonist  all  his 
life — a  sane  democracy  at  home  and  untrammelled 
liberty  of  action  for  Germans  abroad.  He  inter¬ 
rupted  his  University  studies  in  1870  to  participate 
as  a  reserve-lieutenant  in  the  Franco-Prussian  War. 
Having  sheathed  his  sword,  he  has  been  fighting 
ever  since  with  a  pen  no  less  mighty.  For  five 
years  he  was  attached  to  the  family  of  the  late 
Emperor  and  Empress  Frederick  as  tutor  to  their 
son,  Prince  Waldemar,  since  deceased.  For  nine 

113 


MEN  AROUND  THE  KAISER 


years  Delbriick  sat  in  the  Prussian  Diet  and  the 
Reichstag.  He  is  a  brother-in-law  of  Professor 
Adolf  Harnack,  the  eminent  theologian,  and  with 
him  enjoys  a  privileged  position  in  the  councils  of 
the  Court  and  Government.  The  Delbriick  family 
has  long  been  prominent  in  German  intellectual  and 
official  life.  A  kinsman  of  the  Professor  is  at  pres¬ 
ent  Vice-Chancellor  and  Imperial  Home  Secretary. 


XIV 


AUGUST  SCHERL 

THERE  is  a  sedate  and  sober  daily  paper  in 
Berlin  called  Germania,  the  organ  of  the 
all-powerful  Roman  Catholic  Centre 
Party,  which  is  said  to  receive  a  news  telegram  on 
the  average  once  every  thirty  years — whenever  a 
Pope  dies.  Throughout  the  uneventful  decades 
meantime,  its  columns  are  rarely  burdened  with 
what  The  Times  has  immortalised  as  Latest  Intelli¬ 
gence.  The  conditions  peculiar  to  Germania  were 
characteristic  of  all  German  journalism  a  generation 
ago.  Until  the  present  Kaiser’s  reign,  newspapers 
depended  on  the  colourless  and  hackneyed  reports 
furnished  by  the  semi-official  Wolff  Telegraph 
Agency,  whose  methods  are  still  ante-bellum. 
Instead  of  news,  readers  were  mostly  regaled  with 
ponderous  leading  articles  of  erudite  hue.  A  journal 
with  a  circulation  of  50,000  was  a  marvel.  Those 
which  could  boast  of  5,000  were  considered  lucky. 
They  were  the  benighted  days  when  Germans  did 
not  take  in  papers  of  their  own,  but  preferred  to 
yawn  over  free  copies  at  a  coffee-house  or  their 
favourite  beer  resort. 

To-day  Berlin  has  six  dailies  with  circulations 
ranging  from  150,000  to  400,000.  Hamburg, 

115 


MEN  AROUND  THE  KAISER 


Frankfort,  Cologne,  Breslau,  Leipzig  and  Dresden 
have  journals  which  publish  more  than  100,000 
copies  a  day.  Latest  Intelligence  is  not  yet  as 
common  a  commodity  as  in  London,  New  York  and 
Paris,  but  the  make-up  of  the  modern  German  daily 
is  vastly  different  from  the  dreary  and  newsless 
columns  of  olden  times.  Two  or  three  compare 
favourably  in  all  respects  with  the  “livest”  of  their 
metropolitan  confreres  abroad. 

For  the  revolution  worked  in  German  journalism 
one  man  is  primarily  responsible,  August  Scherl, 
founder  and  proprietor  of  the  Berliner  Lokal- 
Anzeiger.  Scherl,  the  son  of  a  Diisseldorf  book- 
dealer,  arrived  in  Berlin  penniless,  but  rich  in  ideas 
in  the  early  ’eighties.  By  1890  he  had  completely 
reformed  German  newspaper  standards.  He  human¬ 
ised  journalism.  He  thought  and  proved  that  the 
time  had  come  to  give  the  public  more  news  and  less 
views.  He  found  the  post  too  slow  for  newspaper 
purposes,  and  proceeded  to  harness  to  them  the 
cable,  the  telegraph  and  the  telephone.  The  first 
daily  issue  of  the  Lokal-Anzeiger,  which  began  as 
a  weekly  two  years  previous,  burst  upon  Berlin  in 
August,  1885.  It  was  hailed  as  “scandalously 
sensational,”  and  was  nicknamed  Skandal-Anzeiger. 
The  burghers  who  had  been  raised  on  a  newspaper 
diet  of  Schopenhauer,  Kant  and  Treitschke  rubbed 
their  eyes  and  shook  their  heads.  They  were 
shocked  to  find  themselves  in  twenty-four  hour, 
instead  of  weekly  or  fortnightly,  touch  with  the 
great  world  outside  Berlin  and  beyond  Germany. 

116 


AUGUST  SCHERL 


A  new  era  had  obviously  dawned.  The  Lokal- 
Anzciger  found  a  clientele  ready-made  for  it.  Its 
novel  political  policy — none  at  all — won  instanta¬ 
neous  favour.  The  public  was  waiting  for  a  paper 
which  specialised  in  news  and  purveyed  it,  regard¬ 
less  of  the  stilted  and  partisan  ’isms  which  hitherto 
had  permeated  the  columns  of  the  German  press. 
Scherl  was  doing  for  Germany  what  the  Bennetts 
and  the  Pulitzers  were  doing  for  America,  and  what 
the  Harmsworths  were  about  to  do  for  England. 

Not  only  was  Scherl’s  conception  of  what  a  news¬ 
paper  ought  to  contain  radically  at  variance  with 
traditions,  but  he  invented  the  idea  of  bringing  the 
paper  to  the  reader  instead  of  waiting  to  have  it 
asked  for.  Circulation-seeking  had  been  as  far 
beneath  the  dignity  of  the  German  fourth  estate 
as  news.  Scherl  went  gunning  for  subscribers  and 
got  them.  He  organised  the  first  modern  system 
of  newspaper-delivery,  employing  for  the  purpose 
women,  who  are  still  the  “newsboys”  of  the  Father- 
land.  He  established  neighbourhood  branch  offices 
far  and  wide,  in  order  to  lay  papers  at  subscribers’ 
doors  with  all  possible  dispatch.  He  printed  special 
editions  during  the  twenty-four  hours  preceding 
the  appearance  of  next  morning’s  paper,  and 
astonished  a  community  unaccustomed  to  getting 
anything  for  nothing  by  giving  away  “extras.”  He 
added  a  supplement  to  the  Lokal-Anseigcr,  contain¬ 
ing  help-wanted  advertisements,  and  distributed  it 
gratis  in  the  working-class  districts.  Separate 
sheets  dealing  with  news  exclusively  of  interest  to 

ii  7 


MEN  AROUND  THE  KAISER 


particular  sections  of  Berlin  and  the  suburbs  were 
folded  into  the  regular  edition  of  the  Lokal- 
Anzciger.  A  dispatch  bureau  was  opened  in  Unter 
den  Linden  for  the  display  of  world-news  from 
hour  to  hour.  Scherl’s  innovations  seemed  to  know 
no  limits.  It  was  small  wonder  that  the  Lokal- 
Anzeiger’s  family  of  readers  grew  by  leaps.  People 
continued  to  read  Aunt  Voss,  as  the  classical 
V ossische  Zcitung  was  known,  and  the  Kreuz 
Zcitung,  the  Conservative  thunderer,  for  literature, 
metaphysics  and  philosophy,  but  they  took  the 
Lokal-Anzciger  for  news. 

In  1889,  four  years  after  its  establishment,  the 
Lokal-Anzciger  found  it  necessary  to  convert  its 
daily  into  morning  and  evening  editions,  which 
Scherl,  now  the  recognised  Napoleon  of  the  craft, 
offered  to  subscribers  at  the  rate  of  a  shilling  a 
month,  inclusive  of  a  special  Sunday  edition. 
With  the  appearance  of  the  twice-a-day  paper,  its 
news  service  was  expanded  afresh.  Scherl  had  long 
been  spending  money  freely  on  news  gathering. 
He  discovered  that  100  marks  invested  in  Latest 
Intelligence  produced  better  results  for  him  and 
vastly  more  interest  for  his  readers  than  heavy 
literature  dealing  with  high  politics  or  the  higher 
criticism.  He  appointed  correspondents  in  all  the 
German  towns  and  cities.  He  sent  representatives 
of  his  own  to  foreign  capitals,  and  cautioned  them 
to  spend  money  on  telegraphing  news.  The  special 
correspondent,  an  old  institution  abroad,  was 
practically  unknown  in  Germany.  The  Cologne 

118 


AUGUST  SCHERL 


Gazette,  the  Frankfurter  Zcitung,  and  one  or  two 
others  had  had  “specials”  at  the  Franco-German 
War,  but  Scherl  was  the  first  to  realise  that  the 
public  had  interest  in  events  less  catastrophic  than 
war,  and  dispatched  special  correspondents  broad¬ 
cast  to  report  earthquakes,  floods,  revolutions, 
political  crises,  historic  functions  of  State,  royal 
pilgrimages  and  other  world-happenings  which 
to-day  are  as  exhaustively  “covered”  as  used  to  be 
the  sleepy  meetings  of  the  Potsdam  town  council. 
Nowadays  Lokal-Anzciger  “specials”  rush  to  the 
farthermost  corners  of  the  earth  in  quest  of  news. 
The  ablest  of  them,  Otto  von  Gottberg,  has  not 
missed  an  event  of  international  magnitude  in 
fifteen  years. 

Along  with  modernisation  of  news  gathering  and 
news  vending,  Scherl  resorted  to  up-to-date  methods 
in  the  mechanical  department  of  newspaper  pro¬ 
duction.  The  Lokal-Anzeigcr  was  the  first  German 
paper  to  banish  hand  typesetting  and  instal 
linotypes.  Scherl  introduced  newspaper-photog¬ 
raphy  in  his  country,  and  duplicated  the  success 
of  the  Lokal-Anzeiger  as  a  daily  with  an  illustrated 
weekly,  Die  IVoche,  which  is  still  the  leading 
periodical  of  its  class.  Then  he  launched  a  picture 
daily,  Der  Tag ,  which  spread  far  and  wide  the  fame 
of  the  two-colour  printing  process  invented  in 
Germany.  Year  after  year  Scherl  brought  out  new 
publications  till  he  had  exploited  almost  every 
important  field  of  human  activity.  To-day  he 
owns  five  dailies  and  a  dozen  weeklies,  the  latter 

119 


MEN  AROUND  THE  KAISER 


including  the  chief  illustrated  sporting  weekly,  Sport 
in  Bild,  and  Gartenlaube,  the  most  widely  read 
family  periodical,  with  a  colossal  circulation.  Scherl 
branch  offices  are  scattered  all  over  the  Empire. 
There  are  forty-two  in  Greater  Berlin  and  two  hun¬ 
dred  and  fifty  in  the  provinces.  The  Scherl  publica¬ 
tions,  which  since  1894  have  been  the  nominal 
property  of  a  limited  company,  also  include  the  city 
directories  of  Berlin  and  a  dozen  other  cities.  Their 
home  is  an  enormous  complex  of  buildings  in  the 
heart  of  Berlin’s  business  district  and  the  working 
staff  exceeds  five  thousand  men  and  women. 

Herr  Scherl  is  a  unique  mixture  of  the  sentimental 
and  practical.  He  has  made  a  huge  fortune  from 
his  properties,  but  almost  every  one  of  them, 
beginning  with  the  epoch-making  Lokal-Anzeiger, 
has  sprung  from  an  idealistic  desire  to  make  the 
lot  of  the  masses  happier  and  easier.  It  was  from 
such  motives  that  he  founded  his  popular  circulating 
library,  evolved  a  new  system  of  people’s  savings 
banks,  advocated  communal  theatres  for  the  pro¬ 
letariat,  and  launched  an  ambitious  project  for 
rapid  transit  in  cities  by  means  of  the  monorail,  in 
which  he  is  an  enthusiastic  believer,  as  he  demon¬ 
strated  by  acquiring  the  patents  for  the  best  system 
extarrt.  He  was  one  of  the  pioneers  of  airmanship 
in  Germany,  and  organized  “flying  weeks”  in  the 
early  days,  to  educate  his  countrymen  to  the 
importance  of  the  aeroplane. 

Actively  identified  as  August  Scherl  has  been  with 
the  development  of  modern  Germany,  there  are 

120 


AUGUST  SCHERL 


probably  not  a  hundred  men  who  knew  him  by  sight. 
Society  sees  him  not  at  all.  He  is,  in  fact,  a  hermit. 
He  is  harder  to  get  to  than  the  Kaiser.  Field- 
Marshal  von  Waldersee,  fresh  from  the  glories  of 
the  China  campaign  in  1900,  tried  for  four  weeks 
to  meet  the  Newspaper  King  and  failed.  In  recent 
years  Scherl  has  directed  most  of  the  affairs  of 
his  vast  enterprise  from  the  study  of  his  private 
dwelling,  which  is  closed  hermetically  to  everybody 
but  private  secretaries.  Yet  no  detail  of  his 
vast  business  escapes  him.  He  is  still  the  great 
producer  of  ideas  for  it,  and  holds  all  the  various 
reins  of  its  activities  in  his  own  resourceful  hands. 
The  flashes  of  genius  and  enterprise  which 
periodically  emanate  from  Zimmer-strasse,  Berlin’s 
Fleet  Street,  originate  with  him.  He  usually 
thinks  and  sees  months  and  miles  ahead  of  rival 
publishers.  Of  course,  he  has  many  imitators 
and  worthy  competitors  now,  whom  he  has  forced 
to  spend  money  and  invent  novelties,  in  order  to  keep 
the  pace  he  has  set  them.  The  Berliner  Tageblatt, 
under  the  brilliant  editorship  of  Theodor  Wolff,  is 
probably  the  best  all-round  newspaper  in  Germany, 
and  Messrs.  Ullstein,  of  Berlin,  are  in  many  respects 
the  most  progressive  newspaper  publishers.  The 
Lokal-Anseiger  no  longer  has  the  field  to  itself,  but 
Scherl  blazed  the  tvay  for  the  successes  and  fortunes 
of  all  the  rest.  He  is  sixty-three  years  old,  and  still 
in  the  prime. 

English  and  American  readers  have  long  seen  the 
Lokal-Anseiger  described  as  semi-official.  No  other 

121 


MEN  AROUND  THE  KAISER 


newspaper  is  in  closer  confidential  relationship  to 
the  powers  that  be  than  the  leading  Scherl  organ. 
The  Court  and  the  Government  recognize  the  power 
inherent  in  a  popular  daily  of  immense  circulation, 
and  regularly  use  the  Lokal-Anzeiger  for  “inspired” 
news  and  views,  in  preference  to  the  North  German 
Gazette ,  the  official  mouthpiece  and  denial  machine. 

Scherl’s  hobby  is  the  birds.  Periodically  during 
the  year  an  appealing  line  in  bold-faced  type  stares 
Berliners  in  the  face  at  a  dozen  points  in  their 
Lokal-Anzeiger.  It  runs,  “Remember  the  Birds.” 
Scherl  once  robbed  a  bird’s-nest.  Remorse  over 
his  youthful  pranks  haunted  him  in  early  man¬ 
hood,  and  he  resolved  to  make  the  welfare  of 
the  birds  a  feature  of  his  life-work.  One  of  the 
many  Scherl  stories  has  it  that  he  takes  keen 
delight  now  and  then  in  buying  out  the  entire  stock 
of  an  aviary  and  setting  the  caged  creatures  free 
in  the  sunny  Tiergarten. 

Few  of  the  men  around  the  Kaiser  have  done 
more  in  the  making  of  Modern  Germany  than  the 
bird-lover  of  the  Zimmer-strasse,  whose  name  has 
become  a  household  word  everywhere  where  his 
language  is  read  and  spoken. 


XV 


PRINCE  VON  BUELOW 

PRINCE  BERNHARD  VON  BUELOW, 
fourth  Chancellor  of  the  German  Empire, 
relinquished  office  on  July  14th,  1909,  but 
the  actual  date  of  his  political  demise  was 
November  17th,  1908.  It  was  on  that  day  that  he 
undertook  his  fateful  journey  to  Potsdam  in  the 
midst  of  the  “Kaiser  Crisis”  provoked  by  the  Daily 
Telegraph  interview,  to  extort  from  his  Imperial 
master  a  pledge  of  “greater  reserve”  in  the  dis¬ 
cussion  and  conduct  of  the  nation’s  affairs.  The 
Imperial  Gazette  proclaimed  that  the  Kaiser  had 
assured  the  man  with  the  muzzle  of  his  “continued 
confidence,”  but  Buelow  actually  lay  in  extremis 
from  the  moment  he  quit  his  chastened  Sovereign’s 
presence.  His  early  disappearance  from  the  place 
he  had  adorned  for  ten  years  became  a  foregone 
conclusion. 

Throughout  his  long  career  the  goddess  of  fortune 
lavished  her  capricious  smiles  on  Buelow  so  faith¬ 
fully  that  he  came  to  be  known  as  Bernhard  the 
Lucky.  His  rise  in  the  diplomatic  service  from  an 
humble  attacheship  to  the  Foreign  Secretaryship, 
the  warm  favour  of  the  Kaiser,  his  extended  tenure 
of  the  Imperial  Chancellorship,  his  successive  eleva- 

123 


MEN  AROUND  THE  KAISER 


tions  to  the  rank  of  Count  and  Prince,  his  Parlia¬ 
mentary  triumphs,  his  feat  in  arresting  the  rising 
tide  of  Social  Democracy,  his  inheritance  of  a  great 
fortune — all  these  episodes  were  hailed  by  com¬ 
patriots  as  evidence  that  Buelow  led  a  charmed  life, 
and  that  the  pitfalls  which  ordinarily  bring  states¬ 
men  to  earth  were  but  stepping  stones  for  him. 

Though  the  “November  storm”  undid  him, 
fortune’s  favourite  was  not  to  be  left  in  the  lurch; 
he  was  vouchsafed  an  exit  from  political  life 
which  historians  will  not  place  to  his  discredit. 
Germany’s  chaotic  Imperial  finances  were  to  be 
“reformed”  by  the  imposition  of  $125,000,000  of 
fresh  taxes  to  meet  the  deficits  resultant  from  the 
Dreadnaught  era.  Prince  Buelow  insisted  that  the 
great  landed  classes  should  bear  their  share  of  the 
burden,  and  proposed  an  Inheritance  Tax  as  the 
fairest  means  of  assessing  them.  The  Agrarian 
aristocracy,  the  self-appointed  guardians  of  Throne, 
conscience  and  patriotism  in  Prussia-Germany, 
revolted  against  the  Chancellor’s  designs  on  the 
revenue  of  Junkers  yet  unborn.  Moreover,  Buelow’s 
“treason”  to  the  Kaiser  rankled  in  their  monarchical 
bosoms.  Secretly  and  gnawingly  the  Conservatives 
were  awaiting  their  chance  to  send  the  Chancellor 
to  the  guillotine.  The  Finance  Reform  Bill  was 
their  opportunity.  Locking  arms  with  the  Roman 
Catholic  Centre,  against  which  Buelow  had  governed 
precariously  since  the  previous  general  election, 
rebellious  Blue  combined  with  revengeful  Black 
against  the  Inheritance  Tax,  on  which  the  Chancellor 

124 


PRINCE  VON  BUELOW 

had  formally  staked  his  official  existence.  Unavail¬ 
ing  was  the  impressive  Swan  Song  he  delivered 
from  his  familiar  place  at  the  corner  of  the  Govern¬ 
ment  bench.  “My  own  position,”  he  assured  the 
Reichstag,  “is  entirely  secondary  to  the  prompt 
adoption  of  the  Finance  Reform  scheme.  If  I 
should  be  convinced  that  my  person  stands  in  the 
way,  that  somebody  else  can  reach  the  goal  more 
easily,  or  if  things  should  develop  so  that  I  could 
not,  or  would  not,  any  longer  co-operate,  I  shall  be 
able  to  induce  the  Emperor  to  see  that  my  retire¬ 
ment  is  opportune.  I  hope  my  successor  may  do  his 
duty  to  the  Empire  as  loyally  and  honourably  as  I 
have  tried  to  do.” 

Resignation  in  more  senses  than  one  rang  clarion 
from  this  simple  manifesto.  The  Inheritance  Tax 
was  defeated.  Refusing  to  identify  himself  with  a 
Finance  Reform  which  shouldered  disproportionate 
burdens  on  the  masses,  Buelow  asked  the  Kaiser 
for  his  discharge.  Of  the  Sovereign  who  had  been 
not  only  master,  but  comrade,  and  had  surfeited  him 
with  the  highest  honours  within  his  majestic  gift, 
Buelow  took  leave  under  unconventional  circum¬ 
stances  in  the  garden  of  Berlin  Schloss  on  a  mid¬ 
summer  day,  while  the  gaping  populace  looked  on 
from  across  the  placid  Spree.  As  the  Chancellor, 
grave  of  countenance  and  bearing  a  huge  white 
envelope  containing  his  resignation,  entered,  the 
Kaiser  advanced  to  meet  him,  shook  hands  cordially, 
and,  linking  his  right  arm  with  the  Prince’s  left, 
walked  up  and  down  the  terrace,  conversing 

125 


MEN  AROUND  THE  KAISER 


animatedly  for  the  matter  of  twenty  minutes. 
Now  and  then  the  Emperor  punctuated  his  discourse 
with  characteristic  gestures  with  the  clenched  fist. 
When  the  walk  and  talk  were  ended,  the  Kaiser 
embraced  his  old-time  friend  and  councillor,  wrung 
his  hand  warmly  in  farewell  grasp,  and  escorted 
him  to  the  gate. 

Chancellors  before  and  since  Buelow  have  been 
defeated  in  the  Reichstag  and  survived,  proud 
Bismarck  among  them.  Germany  has  a  Parliament, 
but  no  Parliamentary  government.  There  was 
neither  law  nor  tradition  compelling  Buelow  to 
respond  to  the  miscarriage  of  the  Inheritance  Tax 
with  his  resignation.  Realising  that  his  status  with 
the  Kaiser  was  irreparably  shattered,  Buelow  simply 
seized  upon  a  casual  Reichstag  vote  of  mistrust  as  a 
providential  parachute  to  oblivion.  His  going  is 
officially  indexed  in  German  political  history  under 
the  rubric  of  Finance  Reform.  Actually  it  was 
born  of  the  implacability  of  monarchs  and  men 
unforgiving  both  of  muzzles  and  muzzlers. 

Buelow  was  not  infallible;  yet  Simplicissimas’ 
recent  jest — “Bernhard,  come  back!  All  is  for¬ 
given  !” — like  so  much  of  the  wisdom  of  the  German 
Punch,  is  unquestionably  expressive  of  prevailing 
public  opinion  of  the  fourth  Chancellor  and  his 
works.  He  has  been  almost  greater  in  retirement 
than  in  office.  He  has  preserved  a  silence  which 
might  make  the  Sphinxes  blush.  Efforts  to  draw 
him  on  the  questions  which  agitate  Germany  and 
Europe  prove  as  abortive  as  if  addressed  to  a  mute. 

126 


PRINCE  VON  BUELOW 


He  once  reminded  Mr.  Chamberlain  that  people 
who  cast  aspersions  on  the  honour  and  the  humanity 
of  the  German  Army  were  biting  on  granite. 
Equally  impressionless  are  appeals  to  Buelow  to 
emerge  from  the  retirement  he  has  imposed  upon 
himself,  and  unburden  his  heart  on  the  topics  of  the 
day.  Whether  amid  the  solitude  of  the  Roman  villa 
where,  with  his  accomplished  Italian  wife,  formerly 
the  Princess  Maria  Camporeale,  he  lives  for  six 
months  of  the  year,  or  at  his  German  country  home 
at  Klein-Flottbeck,  near  Hamburg,  or  alongside 
the  billows  of  the  North  Sea  at  Nordeney,  where 
he  spends  his  summers,  Buelow’s  lips  are  hermeti¬ 
cally  sealed.  If  he  cherishes  resentment  against 
any  living  man,  or  has  a  view  on  any  topic  of  past, 
present  or  future  importance  for  his  fellow-men,  or 
a  thought  beyond  the  dimensions  of  a  meteorological 
pleasantry,  he  has  kept  it  magnificently  to  himself. 
Two  of  his  predecessors  did  their  talking  out  of 
school  in  memoirs.  Bismarck’s  best  ones,  those 
which  tell  of  his  dismissal,  are  still  locked  up  in 
the  Bank  of  England,  to  be  kept  till  the  last  person 
therein  mentioned  is  no  more.  Buelow’s  recollec¬ 
tions  are  stored  in  the  strong-box  of  his  soul.  They 
will  make  fascinating  reading  if  he,  too,  some  day, 
like  his  immortal  precursor,  is  moved  to  deal  with 
the  last  phase. 

Prince  Buelow  is  remembered  best  by  those  who 
know  him  as  the  most  urbane  of  men.  He  is  by 
far  the  most  worldly  of  contemporary  German 
statesmen.  He  has  the  Parliamentary  manner, 

127 


MEN  AROUND  THE  KAISER 


and  would  be  equally  at  home  as  Premier  or  Leader 
of  the  Opposition  in  a  country  where  truly  repre¬ 
sentative  Government  prevails.  There  is  none  of 
the  narrow-mindedness  of  the  typical  German 
politician  in  his  make-up.  At  the  Wilhelmstrasse 
he  was  at  ease  alike  with  ambassadors  of  great 
powers  and  wirepullers  of  domestic  parties.  He  is 
what  Lord  Morley,  speaking  of  Disraeli,  called  a 
master  of  the  tedious  art  of  managing  men.  Suavity 
itself,  nothing  ever  ruffled  him.  He  turned  the 
most  violent  attacks  in  the  Reichstag  from  a 
Bebel  or  an  Erzeberger  into  victory  by  a  shrewd 
retort  or  timely  witticism.  He  is  one  of  the  few 
real  orators  of  a  race  which  talks  much  but  not 
well.  To  hear  his  dialectics,  richly  seasoned  with 
quotations  which  he  habitually  affected,  was  not 
always  to  hear  a  straightforward  presentation  of  a 
given  issue,  or  one  that  went  directly  to  the  point, 
but  it  was  a  treat  to  an  ear  which  delights  in 
graceful  language,  repartee,  imagery  and  rhetorical 
gymnastics.  He  seldom  took  his  seat  without 
scoring  a  triumph.  And  like  Mr.  Balfour,  he 
caressed  the  lapels  of  his  frock-coat  when  on  his 
feet. 

By  the  same  arts  he  employed  to  tame  the 
Reichstag,  he  won  an  extraordinarily  secure  place 
in  the  confidence  and  affection  of  the  Kaiser. 
“My  Bernhard,”  the  Emperor  used  to  call  him. 
No  man  better  understood  the  psychology  of 
William  II.  It  is  related  that  Buelow  used  to  secure 
the  Imperial  assent  on  occasion  between  jokes, 

128 


PRINCE  VON  BUELOW 


which  he  told  surpassingly  well.  He  was  a  great 
believer  in  the  efficacy  of  cooking  as  an  asset  in 
dealing  with  German  politicians,  and  is  said  to  have 
overcome  the  opposition  of  a  certain  pompous  M.P., 
who  still  leads  a  forlorn  hope  known  as  National 
Miserables,  by  inviting  him  to  good  dinners. 

Prince  Buelow,  now  sixty-four,  traces  his  ancestry 
back  to  the  twelfth  century.  For  generations  his 
family  has  been  conspicuously  identified  with  war, 
religion,  diplomacy,  politics,  literature,  music,  arts 
and  all  the  other  great  movements  of  Prussia  and 
Germany.  Prior  to  coming  to  Berlin  as  Foreign 
Secretary  in  1896,  Buelow  had  a  unique  interna¬ 
tional  experience  at  Germany’s  legations  and  em¬ 
bassies  at  St.  Petersburg,  Paris,  Rome  and 
Bucharest.  An  aristocrat  in  bearing,  tall,  broad- 
browed  and  erect,  with  a  ruddy  face  embellished  with 
a  white  mustache  of  military  cut,  and  surmounted 
by  snowy  hair  punctiliously  parted  in  the  middle, 
Prince  Buelow  is  a  soldierly  and  handsome  figure. 
One  is  not  within  the  orbit  of  his  charm  a  second 
before  one  realises  the  presence  of  a  cultured  gentle¬ 
man  and  sincere  host.  He  must  have  won  many 
a  diplomatic  bout  with  his  smile. 

The  Kaiser  raised  Buelow  to  the  dignity  of  a 
Prince  of  Prussia  in  June,  1905,  on  the  day  Germany 
accomplished  the  downfall  of  M.  Delcasse  from  the 
French  Foreign  Office.  To  his  gifted  Chancellor, 
William  II.  gave  chief  credit  for  the  deepest  humilia¬ 
tion  put  upon  France  since  Sedan.  The  Morocco 
campaign,  which  had  been  initiated  a  few  months 

129 


MEN  AROUND  THE  KAISER 


previous  by  the  Kaiser’s  dramatic  visit  to  Tangier, 
began  under  Buelow’s  regime,  but  was  not  essentially 
of  his  making.  It  originated  with  that  unseen 
autocrat  of  German  diplomacy,  the  late  Baron  von 
Holstein.  It  may  safely  be  assumed  that  the  Sage 
of  Villa  Malta  did  not  covet  the  laurels  Germany 
eventually  reaped  in  Morocco. 

Buelow  never  thoroughly  understood  England 
and  the  English  character.  Anglo-German  tension 
developed  during  his  Chancellorship,  though  it  is 
fair  to  remember  that  he  inherited  the  Foreign 
Secretaryship  after  the  Kruger  telegram.  He  re¬ 
jected  Mr.  Chamberlain’s  famous  overtures  for 
an  Anglo-German-American  Alliance,  and  never 
particularly  exerted  himself  to  bring  about  a 
relaxation  of  the  strained  relations  which  still 
constitute  the  bogey  of  the  European  situation. 
He  was,  however,  no  armaments  zealot.  On  the 
question  of  unceasing  naval  expansion  he  was 
dragged  along  by  his  more  forceful  colleague, 
Admiral  von  Tirpitz.  Buelow  recognised  the  danger 
of  piling  up  armaments.  “They  can  have  but  one 
result,”  he  declared  once  in  the  Reichstag.  “Pres¬ 
sure — counter-pressure — explosion.  ’  ’ 

Bernhard  the  Lucky  he  remained  to  the  last. 
Even  as  a  prophet,  his  very  last  role  in  politics,  he 
called  the  right  color.  In  a  parting  interview  with 
a  Hamburg  newspaper,  his  final  public  utterance, 
he  warned  the  Black  and  Blue  alliance  which  drove 
him  from  office  that  “We  shall  meet  again  at 
Philippi.”  He  adjured  them  they  had  but  unloosed 

130 


PRINCE  VON  BUELOW 


the  red  flood.  When  the  votes  were  counted  at  the 
succeeding  general  election  Social  Democracy  rose 
from  the  impotent  half-hundred  seats  in  the 
Reichstag,  to  which  Buelow  had  reduced  them  five 
years  previous,  to  an  imposing  no  and  the  stature 
of  the  strongest  party  in  Parliament  and  in  the 
country. 

German  traditions  and  precedents  preclude  such  a 
possibility,  but  if  Prince  Buelow  were  to  be  re¬ 
summoned  to  the  bridge,  many  would  call,  not  him, 
but  Germany  lucky. 


XVI 


ADMIRAL  VON  KOESTER 

IN  the  early  days  of  March,  1909,  a  phenomenon 
unprecedented  in  the  world’s  Parliamentary 
history  took  place  in  the  Reichstag.  German 
Naval  estimates  aggregating  roundly  $100,000,000, 
the  heaviest  on  record,  were  passed  without  a  dis¬ 
senting  voice  or  syllable  of  debate.  Funds  for  the 
laying  down  of  three  super-Dreadnoughts,  a  battle¬ 
cruiser  and  a  complementary  squadron  of  smaller 
cruisers,  torpedo-boats  and  submarines,  and  for  the 
fixed  charges  of  naval  upkeep,  were  voted  without  a 
murmur  of  disapproval  or  discussion. 

It  suggests  a  fascinating  psychological  study  to 
examine  the  causes  which  induce  tax-burdened 
Germany,  already  saddled  with  a  colossal  Army 
budget,  which  amounts  for  1913  to  $500,000,000, 
to  shoulder  uncomplainingly  naval  expenditure, 
which  has  risen  from  $30,000,000  in  1898  to  $116,- 
750,000  in  1913.  The  explanation  is  not  far 
to  seek.  In  the  amazing  propaganda  carried  on 
by  the  German  Navy  League  lies  the  secret  of  the 
conversion  of  the  nation  once  known  as  the  land  of 
thinkers  and  poets  into  a  race  of  naval  enthusiasts. 
It  is  the  Navy  League — no  mere  pusillanimous 

132 


ADMIRAL  VON  KOESTER 


coterie  of  armchair  admirals  who  adopt  resolutions 
and  banquet  annually,  but  a  militant  phalanx  of  a 
million  practical  patriots — which  has  driven  the 
doctrine  of  sea  power  so  deep  into  the  German 
marrow  that  it  has  become  a  religion. 

Such  crusades  in  all  ages  have  had  outstanding 
generalissimos.  Admiral  von  Koester,  the  Grand 
Old  Man  of  the  German  Fleet,  is  the  personality 
which  has  made  the  Navy  League  pulsate  with  life 
and  fruitful  energy.  A  sailor  for  fifty  years,  with 
the  highest  honours  of  the  service  to  his  credit,  he 
became  its  president  six  years  ago  at  a  critical 
juncture.  Fanatical  methods  of  a  predecessor  in 
office  had  brought  the  organisation  to  the  brink  of 
disintegration.  The  Imperial  Admiralty  was  face 
to  face  with  a  calamity.  The  break-up  of  the  Navy 
League  threatened  danger  to  the  whole  future  of 
German  naval  policy.  Koester  had  just  relinquished 
the  commandership-in-chief  of  the  High  Seas  Fleet 
with  the  rank  of  grand-admiral,  which  corresponds 
to  the  highest  rank  in  the  Army,  that  of  a  field 
marshal.  Though  the  privileges  and  emoluments 
of  the  retired  list  were  his  due,  he  much  preferred 
to  remain  at  work.  No  field  of  usefulness  at  the 
moment  compared  in  importance  with  the  task  of 
keeping  intact  the  machinery  of  the  Navy  League. 
He  shouldered  it.  The  executive  gifts  which  had 
distinguished  his  entire  career  speedily  enabled 
him  to  restore  harmony  in  the  League’s  warring 
ranks.  On  the  wave  of  enthusiasm  which  accom¬ 
panied  the  dawn  of  the  Dreadnought  era,  the 

I33 


MEN  AROUND  THE  KAISER 


Flottcn-Verein  was  launched  on  a  new  career  of 
prosperity  and  power. 

It  was  the  Kaiser  who  proclaimed,  at  the  birth 
of  the  new  century,  that  “Germany’s  future  lay 
upon  the  water” ;  that  a  mighty  fleet  was  “a 
bitter  necessity” ;  that  “the  ocean  was  essential 
to  Germany’s  greatness” ;  that  “the  trident  must 
be  in  Michel’s  hand” ;  that  “the  more  Germans 
who  went  to  sea,  the  better  for  the  Fatherland,” 
and  the  other  epigrammatic  ukases  which  fired 
Teuton  imaginations  with  visions  of  admiralty. 
It  was  Von  Tirpitz  who  piloted  ever-recurring  pro¬ 
grammes  through  the  tortuous  waters  of  party 
politics.  But  it  is  the  Navy  League  which  has  kept 
the  conscience  of  the  country  awake,  which  has 
aroused  the  nation’s  fears  and  fanned  its  passions 
as  occasion  demanded.  “Record”  naval  estimates 
disturb  the  equanimity  of  the  average  German  no 
more  than  budgets  for  the  State  railways.  The 
agitation  for  naval  expansion  waged  in  Germany 
during  the  past  fifteen  years  is  peerless  among 
campaigns  of  education  in  our  time. 

To-day  the  League’s  membership  is  approaching 
1,250,000.  Over  3,500  local  branches  are  scattered 
throughout  the  country.  No  hamlet,  no  matter 
how  tiny  or  remote  from  the  seaboard,  is  left 
uncanvassed.  A  pilgrimage  to  an  ancestral  shrine 
once  took  me  to  a  village  deep  in  the  heart  of 
Bavaria,  five  hundred  miles  from  Kiel.  They  had 
never  seen  a  motor-car  in  sleepy  old  Binswangen, 
but  they  knew  all  about  Dreadnoughts,  and  before 

I34 


ADMIRAL  VON  KOESTER 


I  quitted  his  hospitable  board,  the  Chairman  of  the 
parish  council,  who  had  helped  me  unravel  a  genea¬ 
logical  puzzle,  invited  me  to  sign  an  application  for 
membership  in  the  Navy  League. 

The  League’s  invested  fortune  is  nearly  $100,000. 
Its  annual  income  from  membership  subscriptions 
is  $87,500.  It  earns  another  $35,000  from  adver¬ 
tisements  in  the  League’s  excellent  official  organ, 
Die  Flotte — mostly  the  announcements  of  the  ship¬ 
builders  and  gunmakers  whose  dividends  are  born 
in  the  League’s  sleepless  propaganda.  Close  to 
$125,000  a  year  is  spent  in  preaching  the  Big  Navy 
gospel.  Die  Flotte  spreads  it  broadcast  to  360,000 
Germans  at  home  and  abroad  from  month  to  month. 
Glib-tongued  orators,  whose  fervour  sometimes 
triumphs  over  the  truth,  drive  it  home  at  countless 
meetings  in  village,  town  and  city.  Twenty  cinema- 
picture  apparatuses  owned  by  the  League  are  kept 
moving  across  the  country,  telling  in  the  convincing 
language  of  the  film  the  stories  and  the  glories  of 
the  Fleet.  During  the  summer  holidays  thousands 
of  schoolchildren  and  teachers  are  brought  to  the 
ports,  war  harbours  and  dockyards  to  see  the  Navy 
at  work  and  in  the  making,  that  each  may  go  home 
a  missionary  in  the  holy  cause.  Still  other  excur¬ 
sions  are  organised  for  members  of  the  League  as  a 
means  of  training  them  to  become  agitators.  The 
League  lays  special  stress  on  educating  children 
and  people  from  remote  inland  regions.  The  men 
and  women  of  Hamburg  and  Bremen,  of  Danzig 
and  Stettin,  in  whose  nostrils  the  salt  of  the  sea  has 

135 


MEN  AROUND  THE  KAISER 


lodged  since  the  cradle,  need  no  persuasion.  It  is 
the  farmers  of  East  and  West  Prussia,  the  moun¬ 
taineers  of  Bavaria,  the  mill  hands  of  Rhineland 
and  Westphalia,  the  peasants  of  Saxony,  the  land¬ 
lubbers  of  the  cities,  whom  the  Navy  League 
systematically  lures  to  the  North  Sea  and  the  Baltic, 
and  sends  back  to  workaday  existences  confirmed 
enthusiasts.  They  have  made  privileged  inspections 
of  the  floating  fortresses  which  belch  broadsides 
calculable  only  in  tons,  and  believe  for  evermore 
in  the  “bitter  need”  of  might  at  sea. 

When  great  political  crises  like  Morocco  arise, 
the  Navy  League  puts  on  extra  coats  of  war  paint. 
Its  hand  is  seldom  disclosed,  but  its  influence  is 
easily  recognised.  No  one  at  such  times  can  place 
his  finger  on  the  point  where  the  “inspiration” 
of  the  League  begins  and  ends,  but  there  is  far  too 
much  homogeneity  and  synchronism  about  the 
press  and  pamphlet  campaigns  which  rage  at  psy¬ 
chological  moments,  to  entitle  them  to  be  considered 
either  spontaneous  or  sporadic.  If  public  opinion 
is  excited  or  excitable,  as  it  was  after  Agadir,  the 
League’s  henchmen  proceed  to  excite  it  still  more. 
The  slogan  of  “The  Fatherland  in  Danger!”  is 
vociferously  hoisted  to  the  ramparts.  The  book¬ 
shop  windows  fill  up,  as  if  by  magic,  with  inflamma¬ 
tory  prints  depicting  Germany  on  the  threshold  of 
catastrophe.  Brochures  clamouring  for  fresh 
Dreadnoughts  rain  on  offenceless  Members  of 
Parliament.  “England,  the  Foe!”  “Perfidious 
Albion!”  “The  Coming  War!”  “The  British 

136 


ADMIRAL  VON  KOESTER 


Peril!”  “England’s  plan  to  Fall  on  Us  in  19 n!” 
— a  random  and  slender  selection  of  titles  from  the 
literature  which  paved  the  way  for  the  latest,  but 
probably  not  the  last,  great  increase  in  the  German 
Fleet.  Nobody  subscribes  more  unreservedly  to 
the  doctrine  that  the  end  justifies  the  means  than 
the  Deutscher  Flottcn-Vercin. 

One  of  the  mildest-eyed  and  gentlest  of  men  is 
the  presiding  genius  over  this  mighty  engine  of 
publicity.  In  his  place  in  the  Prussian  House  of 
Peers,  of  which  the  Kaiser  made  him  a  life  member 
in  1905  as  an  additional  mark  of  recognition  of 
his  services  to  the  Empire,  Von  Koester  might  be 
mistaken  for  the  Procurator-General  of  the  Synod. 
A  fine,  erect,  broad-shouldered  figure,  he  has  the 
geniality  of  the  sea,  and  when  he  talks  of  the 
German  Navy,  conciliation,  not  belligerency,  is  the 
Leitmotif.  Like  every  other  man  in  the  Kaiser’s 
Fleet,  Von  Koester  is  a  profound  admirer  of  British 
naval  traditions,  and  an  advocate  of  cordial  relations 
with  the  Mistress  of  the  Sea;  but  he  believes  that 
genuine  international  friendships  rest  on  mutual 
esteem.  Unprovided  with  imposing  strength  at 
sea,  he  declares,  Germany  can  never  command 
adequate  respect  from  a  naval  power.  This  is 
the  line  Von  Koester  espouses  eloquently  when 
he  himself  plays  the  role  of  agitator  at  important 
Navy  League  meetings  throughout  the  country. 
He  particularly  combats  the  theory  that  Germany 
has  armed  in  stealth,  or  gone  beyond  the  limits 
originally  contemplated  by  her  Naval  Law.  “We 

137 


MEN  AROUND  THE  KAISER 


have  always  laid  our  cards  on  the  table,”  is  one  of 
his  favourite  assertions.  At  present  the  Navy 
League’s  “programme”  is  the  creation  of  a  flying 
squadron  of  battle-cruisers  for  service  in  foreign 
waters,  in  order  that  the  Kaiser’s  flag  may  be  able  to 
assert  itself  on  short  notice  wherever  and  when¬ 
ever  German  oversea  interests  are  menaced  or  at¬ 
tacked. 

If  there  were  real  virtue  in  heredity  Admiral  von 
Koester  should  have  been  a  bard  instead  of  a  sailor. 
He  was  born  at  Schwerin  in  1844,  of  a  father  who 
was  a  poet  and  a  mother  who  was  a  Schlegel,  a 
kinswoman  of  the  famous  scholar  who  made  the 
standard  German  translation  of  Shakespeare.  The 
shores  of  his  native  Mecklenburg  are  washed  by 
the  tempestuous  Baltic,  and  something  of  their 
virus  must  have  early  infected  Von  Koester,  for 
before  he  was  fifteen  he  was  a  cadet  in  the  budding 
Prussian  Navy.  At  thirty  he  was  a  captain  and 
made  his  first  journey  around  the  globe  in  command 
of  his  own  brig.  In  1891,  now  a  rear-admiral,  he 
began  the  work  which  was  to  earn  him  the  proud 
title  of  teacher  of  the  German  Fleet.  By  successive 
stages  of  service  ashore  and  afloat,  he  attained  in 
1903  the  commandership-in-chief  of  the  Active  Bat¬ 
tle  forces.  During  the  three  years  of  his  leadership 
the  Fleet  reached  the  high-water  mark  of  fighting 
efficiency.  It  fell  to  his  lot  to  command  it  during 
the  principal  period  of  transition  from  old  to  new 
naval  ideals.  His  paths  at  Kiel  was  not  always 
strewn  with  roses,  but  he  proved  a  diplomat  as  well 

138 


ADMIRAL  VON  KOESTER 


as  a  disciplinarian,  and  when  he  made  way  for 
Prince  Henry  of  Prussia,  to  become  Inspector- 
General  of  the  Navy,  the  High  Seas  Fleet  was  a 
radically  different  organisation  than  the  one  he  had 
inherited. 

Von  Koester  has  been  compared  by  his  fond  pupils 
among  the  younger  generation  of  officers  to  Admiral 
Jervis,  instructor  of  the  British  Navy  at  the  close 
of  the  eighteenth  century,  who  blazed  the  way  for 
Nelson  and  Trafalgar.  If  Germany’s  fate  is  some 
day  to  be  decided  off  the  dunes  of  Heligoland  or 
farther  west  in  the  North  Sea,  the  Navy  will  cherish 
in  grateful  recollection  the  ideals  implanted  by  its 
teacher,  Grand  Admiral  von  Koester. 


XVII 


MARSCHALL  VON  BIEBERSTEIN 

DEVELOPMENT  of  German  sea-power  was 
predestined  to  make  relations  with  Great 
Britain  the  predominant  foreign  question 
of  William  II.’s  reign.  It  was  inevitable  that  sooner 
or  later  he  should  call  upon  the  greatest  diplomat 
in  his  service  to  help  in  its  solution.  Baron 
Marschall  von  Bieberstein  was  sent  to  the  Court  of 
St.  James  early  in  the  summer  of  1912.  Death 
struck  him  down  almost  before  he  had  entered  upon 
what  he  described  as  his  “steep  and  stony  path.” 
But  his  place  in  history  is  secure.  German  para- 
mountcy  in  Asia  Minor,  which  will  survive  the 
collapse  of  Turkish  power  in  Europe,  is  his  imperish¬ 
able  monument.  Baron  von  Wangenheim,  Baron 
Marschall’s  successor  at  Constantinople,  has  just 
proclaimed  that  “neither  to-day  nor  in  the  future 
will  anyone  be  able  to  lay  a  hand  on  Anatolia,  where 
we  have  vital  interests.”  If  the  day  ever  comes 
when  the  legions  of  the  Kaiser  must  back  up  this 
“Hands  Off!”  warning  with  their  bayonets,  they 
will  leap  to  action  to  safeguard  the  sphere  of  influ¬ 
ence  secured  to  Germany  primarily  by  the  diplomacy 
of  Marschall  von  Bieberstein. 

140 


MARSCHALL  VON  BIEBERSTEIN 

A  blue-eyed,  slightly  stooping  giant,  with 
intellectual  force  clearly  marked  on  his  scarred 
face ;  fearlessness  and  resource  incarnate ;  a  manner 
which  could  swerve  from  irresistible  bonhomie  to 
icy  reserve;  an  amazing  gift  for  adaptability  to 
conditions;  a  German  of  Germans,  who  believed 
to  the  depth  of  his  being  in  the  righteousness 
and  eventual  realisation  of  his  Fatherland's  am¬ 
bitions — such  was  the  Ambassador  entrusted  in 
the  evening  of  a  long  career  with  the  mission 
of  bargaining  for  peace  and  friendship  with  Britain. 
No  one  probably  more  than  Marschall  himself — 
so  was  he  popularly  known — resented  the  silly 
reputation  variously  imputed  to  him,  that  the 
statesman  who  inspired  the  Kruger  telegram  went 
to  England  an  Anglophile  to  the  core,  deter¬ 
mined  to  cement  Anglo-German  amity  at  all 
costs.  Baron  Marschall’s  luggage,  when  he  arrived 
at  Carlton  House  Terrace,  contained  parapher¬ 
nalia  much  more  like  an  ultimatum  than  an 
olive-branch.  Not  a  Government’s  last  word  as 
customarily  spoken,  but  an  ultimatum  in  this 
sense — that  the  dispatch  to  London  of  the  Kaiser’s 
most  virile  diplomatic  personality  was  Germany’s 
final  effort  to  reconcile  her  aspirations  for  more 
world-dominion  with  conditions  held  fundamental 
for  the  security  of  the  British  Empire.  Baron 
Marschall  is  understood  to  have  coveted  the  mission 
just  because  of  its  “steep  and  stony  path.”  Before 
leaving  Constantinople  he  publicly  pledged  that  all 
his  strength  would  be  placed  at  the  disposal  of  his 

141 


MEN  AROUND  THE  KAISER 


Emperor  in  the  task  he  had  undertaken.  Had  he 
failed  to  master  it,  there  would  have  been  a  dis¬ 
position  in  Berlin  to  banish  Anglo-German  relations 
to  the  realm  of  the  incorrigible. 

Bismarck’s  dogma  that  Ambassadors  have  but  to 
wheel  about  in  obedience  to  orders,  like  a  file  of 
Prussian  infantrymen  at  drill,  never  applied  to 
Baron  Marschall.  He  was  sent  to  England  because 
his  chief  stock-in-trade  was  resolute  initiative. 
Marschall  was  a  diplomat  who  acted,  and  reported 
afterwards. 

He  was,  moreover,  essentially  what  is  known  in 
his  country  as  a  Realpolitiker.  A  Realpolitiker  is  a 
statesman  who,  eschewing  the  chase  for  the 
chimerical,  concentrates  on  the  pursuit  of  the 
practical.  When  the  time  came  for  him  to  tell 
Downing  Street  what  it  was  that  Germany  “wants,” 
there  would  have  been  little  beating  about  the  bush, 
and  a  minimum  of  diplomatic  blarney.  He  was  an 
apostle  of  brutal  directness.  At  the  Hague  Con¬ 
ference  he  supported  stubbornly  the  German 
policy  of  unrestricted  armaments  on  land  and  sea. 
The  doctrine  of  territorial  expansion  as  a  German 
imperative  claimed  his  wholehearted  loyalty.  For 
fifteen  years  he  devoted  himself  to  the  exploitation 
of  that  policy;  for  while  German  enterprise  in 
Turkey  and  Asia  Minor  and  her  designs  on  the 
Persian  Gulf  may  not  be  officially  indexed  under 
the  category  of  aggrandizement,  they  amount  to 
that.  The  Bagdad  Railway  is  German  for  penetra¬ 
tion  pacifique.  All  the  items  in  the  calendar  of 

142 


MARSCHALL  VON  BIEBERSTEIN 


Teuton  aims  and  ambitions  had  a  convinced  ad¬ 
herent  in  the  Giant  of  the  Golden  Horn.  His  whole 
political  and  diplomatic  career  was  steeped  in  hos¬ 
tility  to  British  policy.  He  fought  it  in  South 
Africa,  he  opposed  it  at  The  Hague,  and  he 
combated  it  in  Turkey. 

Details  of  circumstance  differ,  but  there  is  now 
agreement  on  the  essential  fact  that  Baron  Marschall 
while  German  Foreign  Secretary  in  1896  inspired,  if 
he  did  not  actually  formulate,  the  Kruger  telegram. 
It  is  certain  that  he  was  the  author  of  the  Circular 
Note  which  apprised  the  Powers  that  the  continuance 
of  Boer  independence  was  “a  German  interest.” 
When  the  Emperor  William  arrived  at  the  Foreign 
Office  for  the  first  time  after  the  Jameson  Raid  to 
counsel  with  his  Chancellor,  Prince  Hohenlohe; 
with  his  Foreign  Secretary,  Baron  Marschall ;  and 
with  the  Secretary  of  his  Navy,  Admiral  Hollmann, 
the  Kruger  dispatch  lay  ready  for  the  imperial 
signature.  The  Kaiser  was  opposed  to  the  whole 
idea  of  burdening  the  cable  with  that  fateful  mes¬ 
sage.  Baron  Marschall  insisted.  He  represented  that 
the  telegram  was  demanded,  and  would  be  cordially 
approved,  by  German  public  sentiment.  The  Kaiser 
yielded,  but  it  was  not  until  after  His  Majesty  had 
radically  “edited”  the  Foreign  Office  draft  that 
the  telegram  was  permitted  to  go  on  its  illstarred 
way.  Baron  Marschall  remained  an  ardent  member 
of  the  group  of  Continental  statesmen  who  advo¬ 
cated  a  coalition  to  defeat  British  purposes  in  South 
Africa. 


J43 


MEN  AROUND  THE  KAISER 


It  was  not  surprising  that  the  Foreign  Secretary 
during  whose  administration  Anglo-German  rela¬ 
tions  were  at  the  breaking  point  should  be  assigned 
only  a  year  later  to  take  up  the  struggle  against 
British  supremacy  in  Turkey.  With  what  telling 
effect  he  dedicated  himself  to  the  task  is  a  common¬ 
place  of  contemporary  diplomatic  history.  Baron 
Marschall  is  given  somewhat  more  personal  merit 
for  the  rise  of  German  power  at  Constantinople  than 
is  actually  his  due.  The  foundations  of  the  work  he 
was  sent  to  do  were  laid  deep  and  well  several  years 
before  his  entrance  on  the  scene.  The  Kaiser  had 
long  since  paid  personal  homage  at  the  Yildiz  Kiosk 
to  the  “great  assassin.”  The  newly  arrived  Colossus 
from  Berlin  was  not  the  first  to  bring  Abdul  Hamid 
proofs  of  German  friendship  and  disinterestedness. 

What  the  Ambassador  set  himself  to  do,  and  did, 
was  to  reduce  the  Sultan  to  a  state  of  practical  sub¬ 
jugation  to  German  ambitions  in  Turkey.  Wholly 
unskilled  in  the  arts  of  professional  diplomacy  at  a 
foreign  capital,  it  was  not  many  months  before 
Baron  Marschall  dominated  the  perspective.  His 
influence  was  enthroned  both  at  Yildiz  Kiosk  and  at 
the  Sublime  Porte.  Nobody,  Turkish  or  foreign, 
could  withstand  him.  He  became  a  sort  of  unofficial 
Grand  Vizier.  German  authority  throughout 
Turkey  rose  as  surely  and  as  irresistibly  as  the  sun 
itself  over  the  placid  Bosphorus.  By  a  process  of 
auto-suggestion,  people  came  to  regard  the  German 
Ambassador  as  omnipotent  and  invincible.  He 
exploited  his  power  to  the  full,  and  often  with  a 

144 


MARSCHALL  VON  BIEBERSTEIN 


high  hand.  A  gang  of  Turkish  dock  navvies  who 
refused,  during  the  anti-Austrian  excitement  over 
Bosnia,  to  unload  a  perishable  cargo  from  a  German 
ship,  cowered  when  the  captain  brought  the  broad- 
shouldered  representative  of  Germany  to  the  quay¬ 
side.  A  word  of  command  from  Marschall  sent  the 
mutinous  dockers  scampering  back  to  their  work  in 
the  hold  like  a  pack  of  beaten  dogs. 

If  Baron  Marschall’s  career  in  the  last  decade  of 
the  Hamidian  regime  was  a  story  of  incessant 
triumph,  his  record  during  the  four  years  following 
the  overthrow  of  the  autocracy  was  still  more  re¬ 
markable.  It  is  within  the  memory  of  all  students  of 
contemporary  European  events  how  soothsayers 
chanted  the  funeral  dirge  of  German  power  at 
Constantinople  after  the  revolution  of  1908.  But 
they  failed  to  reckon  with  the  amazing  adaptability 
to  new  conditions,  which  was  one  of  Baron 
Marschall’s  marked  attributes.  He  completely  re¬ 
versed  the  tactics  which  had  raised  him  to  the  pin¬ 
nacle  in  ante-revolution  days.  He  bided  his  time. 
He  let  Young  Turkey  come  to  him.  Then  he 
proclaimed  that  as  the  Old  Turkey  was  an  autocracy, 
pure  and  simple,  he  had  necessarily  cultivated 
relations  exclusively  with  the  despot;  but  now  that 
Turkey  was  become  a  constitutional  monarchy,  his 
services  were  as  freely  at  its  disposal  as  they  had 
been  at  the  disposal  of  the  discredited  regime.  No 
tribute  to  Baron  Marschall’s  diplomatic  skill  could 
be  higher  than  the  mere  statement  that,  despite 
Abdul  Hamid,  despite  Bosnia  and  Tripoli,  he  left 

1.45 


MEN  AROUND  THE  KAISER 


German  influence  in  Turkey  as  strong  as  it  was  in 
the  heyday  of  the  autocracy. 

Baron  Marschall  was  a  native  of  the  South 
German  Grand  Duchy  of  Baden  and  was  sixty-nine 
years  old  at  the  time  of  his  death.  After  a  dozen 
years  of  practice  as  State  Prosecutor,  he  entered 
politics  and  was  elected  to  the  Reichstag.  Always 
a  favorite  at  the  Karlsruhe  Court,  he  was  sent  to 
Berlin  in  the  eighties  as  Baden’s  diplomatic  repre¬ 
sentative,  with  a  seat  in  the  Federal  Council.  Von 
Holstein,  that  long-time  sinister  and  all-powerful 
figure  in  German  politics,  was  then  at  the  zenith 
of  his  power,  and  Baron  Marschall  became  one  of 
his  votaries.  The  Baden  “State’s  Attorney,”  as 
Bismarck  came  contemptuously  to  call  him,  aligned 
himself  with  the  group  which  successfully  plotted 
for  the  overthrow  of  the  Iron  Chancellor,  and  when 
the  latter’s  son,  Count  Herbert  Bismarck,  retired 
from  the  Foreign  Secretaryship,  Herr  von  Holstein 
handed  over  the  office  to  his  Baden  protege. 

There  was  much  opposition  among  the  profes¬ 
sional  diplomatic  clique  to  the  appointment  of  the 
untrained  “State’s  Attorney”  to  the  direction  of 
the  Empire’s  foreign  affairs,  and  his  tenure  of 
Wilhelmstrasse,  No.  76,  was  destined  to  be  a  period 
of  stress  and  storm.  It  became  an  era  of  depart¬ 
mental  scandals,  litigation,  duels,  intrigues  and 
exposures,  from  which  the  forceful  Foreign  Secre¬ 
tary  did  not  escape  unscathed;  but  his  record  there 
on  the  whole  was  creditable.  The  Triple  Alliance 
was  renewed  during  his  regime,  and  Russo-German 

146 


MARSCHALL  VON  BIEBERSTEIN 


co-operation  in  the  Far  East,  after  the  Chino- 
Japanese  War,  took  place  under  his  auspices.  His 
experience  as  a  special  pleader  at  the  Bar  and  his 
forensic  skill  proved  valuable  assets  when  he  had 
to  face  the  Reichstag  in  debate.  When  the  implac¬ 
able  Bismarckians  finally  accomplished  his  fall  from 
the  Foreign  Secretaryship  in  1897,  he  was  sent  to 
Constantinople. 

A  physical  giant,  Baron  Marschall  was  amiable 
and  gentle  of  temperament,  with  an  ample  supply 
of  reserve  force.  He  was  never  hail-fellow-well-met, 
but  could  be  taciturn  without  becoming  austere. 
He  did  not  make  the  impression  that  he  was  almost 
a  septuagenarian.  He  spoke  English  quite  fluently, 
French  indifferently.  A  graduate  of  Heidelberg, 
he  carried  on  his  left  cheek  the  unfailing  sign  of 
university  education  in  Germany,  a  series  of 
Schmisse  inflicted  by  sabres  in  student  duels.  Con¬ 
siderably  over  6  ft.  in  height  and  broad  in  propor¬ 
tion,  Baron  Marschall  looked  every  inch  the  strong 
man,  an  impression  not  lessened  by  his  habit  of 
walking  with  the  suggestion  of  a  stoop. 

His  hobbies  were  chess,  music,  and  gardening. 
One  was  surest  of  finding  him  in  leisure  hours  at 
the  Teutonia  Club  in  Constantinople  manipulating 
the  little  wooden  men,  or  playing  Beethoven  sonatas 
on  his  own  piano,  or  perhaps  trimming  rose  bushes 
under  a  spreading  umbrella  in  the  lovely  Embassy 
gardens  overhanging  the  Bosphorus. 

Baron  Marschall’s  sudden  exit  from  the  Euro¬ 
pean  stage  came  in  time  to  spare  him  what  would 

147 


MEN  AROUND  THE  KAISER 


have  proved  almost  a  personal  humiliation — the 
break-up  of  Turkey  and  her  German-trained  army 
before  the  invincible  hosts  of  the  Balkans. 
Marschall,  who  had  helped  to  develop  it,  was  a  firm 
believer  in  Ottoman  power.  Its  ignominious  decay 
would  have  torn  the  heartstrings  of  the  once 
uncrowned  autocrat  of  the  Bosphorus. 


XVIII 


AUGUST  THYSSEN 

IF  I  rest,  I  rust.”  In  these  five  words  are 
encompassed  the  philosophy  and  the  policy  of 
August  Thyssen,  Captain-General  of  Ger¬ 
man  industry.  He  has  formally  adopted  them  as 
his  watchword.  If  he  affected  a  coat-of-arms,  they 
would  be  its  slogan.  “King  Thyssen”  is  the  title 
his  supremacy  in  the  steel,  iron  and  coal  trade  has 
won  him.  “The  German  Carnegie”  is  another  of 
his  sobriquets.  By  universal  consent  he  is  the  domi¬ 
nating  figure  of  the  Fatherland’s  throbbing  indus¬ 
trial  life.  No  other  man  so  thoroughly  incorporates 
the  aggressiveness  and  magnitude  of  the  German 
business  age.  No  one’s  life-story  so  typifies  the 
New  Germany’s  fabulous  rise  to  power  and  wealth 
in  the  interval  since  the  Franco-Prussian  War. 

In  the  twenty-five  years  between  1885  and  1910, 
to  select  the  segment  of  principal  growth,  Germany’s 
production  of  pig-iron  increased  from  3,688,000  to 
14,794,000  tons,  an  advance  of  301  per  cent.  In 
the  same  period  production  of  coal  and  lignite 
mounted  from  73,675,000  to  222,375,000  tons,  an 
increase  of  201  per  cent.  In  the  production  of 
iron  ore,  and  of  iron  and  steel,  Germany  has  come 
far  to  outstrip  Great  Britain,  which  led  her  by 

149 


MEN  AROUND  THE  KAISER 


wide  margins  a  quarter  of  a  century  ago.  These 
were  the  totals  for  1911: — 


Germany. 

Iron  Ore,  29,888,000  tons 
Pig-Iron,  15,572,000  “ 

Steel,  15,019,000  “ 


England. 
15.769,000  tons 
9,875,000  “ 

6,565,000  “ 


German  mining  production  in  general — coal,  lignite, 
iron,  potash  and  other  salts,  zinc,  lead  and  copper — 
is  six  and  one-half  times  its  volume  in  1871.  In 
money  it  represents  an  annual  value  of  over  $500,- 
000,000.  Barring  America,  which  is  far  in  the 
van,  Germany’s  supremacy  in  steel,  iron  and  coke 
is  unapproached.  In  Europe  her  lead  is  indisputable. 
She  is  now  behind  the  United  Kingdom  only  in  the 
production  of  coal. 

Among  those  who  have  directed  this  Brobdig- 
nagian  development,  August  Thyssen  of  Mulheim- 
on-Ruhr  is  the  towering  personality.  In  the  coal 
and  iron  trade  of  Germany  he  has  been  what 
Rockefeller  was  in  oil  and  Carnegie  in  steel — the 
master-builder.  The  history  of  all  three,  who  may 
be  bracketed  as  the  commercial  geniuses  of  their 
age,  has  been  much  alike.  Each  grew  from  nothing. 
Thyssen’s  career  is  more  comparable  to  Rockefeller’s 
than  to  Carnegie’s.  Like  the  Petroleum  King,  he 
is  still  at  work.  He  has  not  gone  in  for  peace, 
libraries  and  philanthropy  like  the  American 
Thyssen,  but,  a  hardy  septuagenarian,  still  derives 
his  joy  in  life  from  mining  coal,  puddling  iron  and 
rolling  steel.  He  intends  to  die  in  harness.  The 
emblem  on  Bismarck’s  escutcheon — Patriae  inser- 

150 


AUGUST  THY S SEN 

viendo  consumor — would  fit  Thyssen  precisely,  if 
rendered  to  read  that  he  is  consuming  himself  in  the 
cause  of  labour,  instead  of  country.  He  is  a  restless 
workman.  He  has  been  known  to  tire  out  three 
secretaries  in  one  day.  Much  of  his  time  is  spent 
travelling  about  the  country  on  his  own  business. 
His  home,  a  feudal  castle,  is  really  a  branch  office 
of  his  firm.  Adjoining  his  bedroom  is  a  workroom. 
He  believes  that  neither  men  nor  iron  should  grow 
rusty. 

The  pioneer  of  Americanism  in  German  industry, 
Thyssen’s  career  has  been  typically  transatlantic  in 
its  origin  and  development.  The  Standard  Oil 
Company  was  the  outgrowth  of  an  original  in¬ 
vestment  of  $72,500  by  the  firm  of  Rockefeller  & 
Andrews.  August  Thyssen  inaugurated  his  career 
about  the  same  time,  in  the  early  sixties,  with  a 
capital  of  $6,000,  with  which  he  built  a  rolling-mill 
employing  sixty  workmen.  To-day  he  employs  50,- 
000.  His  largest  property,  the  Deutscher  Kaiser 
Colliery  at  Hamborn,  has  a  pay-roll  of  26,000  and 
mines  over  5,000,000  tons  of  coal  a  year  His 
fortune  is  variously  estimated  at  $50,000,000  and 
$100,000,000.  It  is  probably  more  than  the  former 
and  less  than  the  latter.  His  interests  long  ago 
outgrew  merely  local  dimensions.  To-day,  in  ad¬ 
dition  to  vast  coal-mines,  blast-furnaces,  rolling- 
mills,  by-product  factories,  salt  and  potash  mines, 
harbours  and  docks  at  Hamborn,  Duisburg,  Mul- 
heim  and  other  points  along  and  contiguous  to  the 
Rhine  and  the  Ruhr,  Thyssen’s  influence  extends 

151 


MEN  AROUND  THE  KAISER 


around  the  globe.  From  Caen,  in  Normandy,  he  im¬ 
ports  iron  ore  taken  from  his  own  mines,  and  from 
Montigny  half-finished  products  founded  and  cast  in 
his  own  mills.  They  are  loaded  into  his  own  steam¬ 
ers  from  his  own  docks — a  genuine  German  base  on 
French  soil.  At  Nikolaieff,  on  the  Russian  coast 
of  the  Black  Sea,  he  has  warehouses  and  docks  for 
the  storage  and  shipment  of  ore  for  his  devouring 
furnaces  on  the  far-off  Rhine.  In  Brazil  and  India, 
the  German  flag  flies  over  Thyssen  wharves  and 
harbours.  His  dominating  ideal  is  to  insure  German 
industry  in  general,  and  his  own  properties  in 
particular,  sources  of  raw  material  supply  which 
will  render  them  for  ever  independent  of  foreign 
influence.  It  is  a  little-known  fact  that  August 
Thyssen  was  the  father  of  the  idea  which  eventuated 
in  Germany’s  ill-starred  Moroccan  venture.  Several 
years  ago  he  planned  to  make  Sultan  Abdul-Aziz 
a  loan  in  exchange  for  a  monopoly  of  Morocco’s 
incalculably  rich  iron-ore  deposits.  The  German 
Government  frowned  upon  the  enterprise,  only 
later  to  threaten  Europe  with  war  in  defence  of 
mining  rights  meantime  secured  by  another  group 
of  Rhenish  industrialists,  the  Brothers  Mannesmann 
of  Diisseldorf  and  Remscheid. 

From  America  Thyssen  borrowed  the  idea  of 
concentrating  capital  and  amalgamating  allied  in¬ 
dustries.  He  founded  the  Rhenish-Westphalian 
Steel  Syndicate,  the  Rhenish-Westphalian  Coal 
Syndicate,  the  Pig-Iron  Syndicate,  and  practically 
all  the  important  “Cartels”  now  existing  in  Ger- 

!52 


AUGUST  THYSSEN 

many  for  the  control  of  output  and  regulation  of 
prices  in  the  industries  allied  to  the  steel,  iron  and 
coal  trades.  He  is  a  firm  disciple  of  the  despised 
Trust  idea  as  an  effective  means  of  preventing  crises 
caused  by  over-production  or  price  cutting  competi¬ 
tions.  For  his  own  purposes  he  improved  on  the 
Transatlantic  pattern  by  forming  a  Trust  in  which 
a  single  person  should  be  board  of  directors,  execu¬ 
tive  committee  and  shareholders  all  rolled  into  an 
autocratic  one.  The  Standard  Oil  Company,  the 
United  States  Steel  Corporation  and  other  octopuses 
dispose  over  assets  which  reduce  Thyssen’s  proper¬ 
ties  to  comparative  insignificance,  but  their  stock¬ 
holders’  meetings  are  not  nearly  so  harmonious  as 
his.  The  Thyssen  Trust  belongs  to  Thyssen.  He  is 
monarch  of  all  he  surveys.  A  brother  and  an  eldest 
son  are  nominal  partners,  but  the  King  of  Miilheim 
wields  a  sway  no  American  Trust  magnate  ever  en¬ 
joyed.  He  is  the  only  German  industrialist  who  has 
no  entangling  alliances  with  Banks.  “Interlocking 
directorates,”  which  the  United  States  Government 
is  fighting,  are  a  recognized  and  integral  feature  of 
German  financial  organisation.  On  the  boards  of 
all  great  industrial  corporations  sit  representatives 
of  the  banks,  usually  with  all-powerful  voices  and 
votes.  Representatives  of  the  Dresdner  Bank, 
Germany’s  second  largest  concern,  are  on  the 
Boards  of  two  hundred  companies  with  an  aggre¬ 
gate  capital  of  $650,000,000.  No  bank  has  control¬ 
ling  fingers  in  King  Thyssen’s  pies.  He  has  no 
shares  to  list  on  the  Berlin  Bourse.  Speculation 

153 


MEN  AROUND  THE  KAISER 

is  never  carried  on  in  his  name.  He  brags  that 
he  does  not  understand  the  A.  B.  C.  of  the  Stock 
Exchange. 

Thyssen’s  declared  income  for  tax  purposes  is  a 
paltry  $750,000.  The  actual  revenue  derived  from 
his  enormous  interests  is  admittedly  in  excess  of 
that  figure,  but  as  his  policy  is  immediately  to  re¬ 
invest  profits  in  extension  of  plant,  the  bulk  of  them 
is  not  subject  to  income  taxation.  From  his  hum¬ 
blest  days  he  has  adhered  to  the  principle  of  inces¬ 
sant  expansion.  Every  thousand  marks  he  has 
earned  has  gone  back  into  the  business.  He  cares 
nothing  for  money  as  a  mere  possession.  Its  only 
attraction  to  him  is  as  an  instrument  for  acquisition 
of  fresh  power.  His  consuming  ideal  is  a  steel,  iron 
and  coal  autocracy  subject  to  one  indisputable  will. 
Such  an  industrial  empire  this  Rhenish  Caesar  has 
built,  and  he  remains  its  absolutist  ruler.  He  mines 
his  own  ore,  owns  and  navigates  the  ships  which 
transport  it,  built  the  docks  and  harbours  where  they 
unload  it,  and  himself  digs  the  coal  for  the  furnaces, 
mills  and  foundries  which  are  to  turn  out  coke, 
sheet-steel,  armour-plate,  ingots,  billets,  tubing,  rails, 
ammonia,  tar  and  the  other  dozen  by-products  of 
his  trade.  Uppermost  always  in  Thyssen’s  mind 
is  the  reduction  of  the  cost  of  production.  That, 
he  says,  is  the  beacon-light  on  which  industrial 
energy  must  rivet  its  gaze.  Devotion  to  that  prin¬ 
ciple  has  as  much  to  do  with  the  development  of 
German  industry  as  any  other  single  thing.  It 
accounts  for  the  fact  that  German  works  are  full 

154 


AUGUST  THYSSEN 


of  technical  experts.  For  every  ten  artisans  in  a 
mill  or  factory  there  will  be  at  least  one  technical 
man  or  engineer.  Avoidance  of  waste  is  their 
great  speciality.  They  will  devote  years  to  evolving 
processes  for  cheapening  production  or  creating 
by-products.  In  the  Chicago  stockyards,  as  all  the 
world  knows,  the  pork-packers  utilize  all  of  a  pig 
except  the  squeal.  Down  August  Thyssen’s  way 
they  make  use  of  everything  except  the  smoke.  And 
even  now  he  has  Charlottenburg  graduates  at  work 
on  a  process  of  converting  that  into  a  marketable 
commodity. 

The  German  Government  paid  an  extraordinary 
tribute  to  Thyssen  two  or  three  years  ago  by 
inviting  him  to  overhaul  the  business  end  of  the 
Admiralty  at  Berlin.  Dockyard  scandals  at  Kiel 
had  revealed  a  woeful  lack  of  purely  commercial 
acumen  in  the  department  otherwise  so  ably  ad¬ 
ministered  by  Admiral  von  Tirpitz.  Conscience¬ 
less  tradesmen  were  pulling  the  wool  over  the  Navy’s 
eyes  in  lamentable  and  costly  fashion.  A  master 
of  buying  and  selling  was  needed  to  lick  things  into 
shape.  The  Admiralty  did  the  natural  thing  and 
invoked  the  aid  of  the  greatest  merchant-mind  in 
the  country,  August  Thyssen,  to  put  the  Navy  on  a 
business  basis.  Recently,  it  came  to  light  that 
the  Vulcan  Shipbuilding  Company  of  Stettin  and 
Hamburg,  the  biggest  in  Germany,  delivered  Dread¬ 
noughts  to  the  Admiralty  in  1912  at  a  loss  of 
$500,000.  The  company  had  to  wipe  out  its  entire 
building  reserve  to  cover  the  deficit.  Things  have 

155 


MEN  AROUND  THE  KAISER 


changed  since  the  days  when  the  rag-merchants  of 
Kiel  could  bamboozle  the  Navy.  It  is  King  Thyssen 
who  taught  Tirpitz  how  to  drive  a  bargain. 

Like  Mr.  Chamberlain,  Thyssen  thinks  inter¬ 
national  politics  in  this  day  and  age  are  business 
politics,  pure  and  simple.  He  attributes  the  strain 
in  Anglo-German  relations  to  British  envy  of  Ger¬ 
man  competition — a  myopic  theory  widely  held  in 
the  Fatherland.  He  believes  diplomacy  ought  to  be 
taken  out  of  the  hands  of  courtiers  and  transferred 
to  engineers,  merchants  and  manufacturers.  Trade 
relations  are  so  internationally  interwoven,  Thyssen 
declares,  that  political  relations  ought  to  be  adjusted 
on  the  basis  of  reciprocal  interests.  Approached 
from  that  standpoint  he  thinks  England  and  Ger¬ 
many  could  soon  discover  the  groundwork  of  an 
entente  cordiale.  He  favours  international  treaties 
for  regulating  prices  of  world  commodities  like 
coal,  and  is  persuaded  they  would  do  more  to  cement 
friendships  than  defensive  and  offensive  alliances 
dependent  on  battleships  and  army  corps. 

Thyssen  is  seventy-one  years  old.  Passion  for 
work,  rugged  independence,  almost  sullen  silence, 
and  democratic  simplicity  are  August  Thyssen’s 
outstanding  qualities.  He  cares  nothing  for  titles, 
society,  or  external  honours  of  any  kind.  He  is  a 
Roman  Catholic  who  says  he  is  old  fashioned 
enough  to  be  religious.  His  hobby  is  the  welfare 
of  his  workmen,  for  which  he  provides  liberally. 
He  wears  three-guinea  suits.  He  apologizes  for  an 
incorrigible  inability  to  over-estimate  his  fellow-men, 

x56 


AUGUST  THYSSEN 


Only  one  of  three  sons  has  inherited  the  sturdy 
traits  of  their  father,  Fritz,  the  eldest. 

The  one  outward  trapping  of  great  wealth  about 
August  Thyssen  is  his  home,  the  beautiful  Castle 
Landsberg,  a  glorious  old  Gothic  Schloss  high  up 
on  the  wooded  ramparts  of  the  Ruhr,  near  Diissel- 
dorf.  He  acquired  it  in  1903  and  like  everything 
else  he  ever  owned  has  “extended  the  plant’’  by 
reconstruction.  Castle  Landsberg,  rich  in  moss  and 
memories  of  the  Middle  Ages,  is  a  fitting  abode 
for  a  king.  To-day  it  shelters  a  monarch  whose 
proudest  boast  is  that  he  is  a  workingman,  who 
intends  to  keep  on  labouring  as  long  as  there  is 
life  within  him. 


XIX 

MAX  LIEBERMANN 

IT  is  small  wonder  that  Germany’s  most  eminent 
living  painter,  Max  Liebermann,  should  be  a 
revolutionary.  He  came  into  the  world  in 
1849,  while  his  own  native  Berlin  was  still  rever¬ 
berating  to  the  echo  of  the  cannonade  which  com¬ 
pelled  Frederick  William  IV.  to  grant  rebellious 
Prussia  a  constitution.  The  spirit  of  sedition 
imbibed  with  his  mother’s  milk  has  remained  with 
Liebermann  through  life.  After  the  wave  of  revolt 
which  had  long  since  engulfed  the  French  Art 
School  lapped  over  into  South  Germany  and  sub¬ 
merged  Munich,  then,  as  now,  the  hub  of  the  Father¬ 
land’s  painting  universe,  Max  Liebermann  carried 
the  crusade  into  North  Germany  and  founded  the 
Berlin  “Secession.”  That  was  fourteen  years  ago. 
Time,  the  incorrigible  chastener,  has  sobered  the 
tempestuous  ideals  of  1899,  but  Liebermann  still 
wears  the  title  of  Anarchist,  bestowed  upon  his 
school  from  Imperial  quarters  as  a  stigma  of  honour. 
Art  in  official  Germany,  like  the  Army,  is  largely 

158 


MAX  LIEBERMANN 


ordered  from  on  high.  Liebermann  is  uncompromis¬ 
ingly  at  war  with  the  goose-step  regime.  It  despises 
him  with  a  cordiality  no  less  profound.  Never  was 
there  antipathy  more  mutual  or  more  whole¬ 
heartedly  reciprocated. 

Ask  Liebermann  the  state  of  the  score  between 
him  and  the  Kaiser,  and  he  will  lead  you  to  the 
windows  of  his  house  abutting  Brandenburg  Gate, 
Berlin’s  Arc  de  Triomphe,  and  point  to  the  snow- 
white  marble  counterfeits  of  the  Emperor  and 
Empress  Frederick  glittering  at  the  entrance  to  the 
sylvan  Tiergarten  across  the  way.  If  you  have 
artistic  tears  to  shed,  Liebermann  will  bid  you 
prepare  to  shed  them  now ;  and  then  he  will  assure 
you  that  the  Kaiser,  by  planting  such  “art”  where  it 
must  offend  a  painter’s  gaze  every  time  he  seeks 
sun,  light  and  air,  which  are  Liebermann’s  Gods, 
has  wreaked  revenge  for  the  sins  of  Secessionists 
for  all  time.  “All  I  can  do,”  says  Liebermann, 
“is  to  wear  blue  goggles;  but  it  is  a  life-sen¬ 
tence.” 

An  arrival  in  Berlin  in  the  benighted  first  years  of 
the  new  century  was  taught  to  regard  the  Secession, 
then  in  the  heyday  of  militant  leadership  under 
Liebermann,  as  something  hardly  mentionable  in 
polite  artistic  society.  One  went  to  the  annual 
exhibition  in  Kurfurstendamm  as  to  a  Museum  of 
Misapplied  Arts,  and  talked  of  Secessionists  in 
terms  nowadays  reserved  for  Cubists,  Futurists 
and  Post-Impressionists.  Of  the  Liebermannites 
of  1901  and  1902  people  sang  as  the  music-hall 

159 


MEN  AROUND  THE  KAISER 


comedians  of  New  York  satirised  the  “new  art” 
recently  exhibited  there : 

I  beheld  a  pile  of  brickbats  underneath  a  cellar  stair, 

Which  was  labelled  “Spanish  dancer  with  the  limelight  on 
her  hair.” 

I  remarked  a  slab  of  limestone  on  a  dingy  rubbish  heap, 
And  was  told  it  was  the  portrait  of  “An  Indian  child 
asleep.” 

Seven  lengths  of  cedar  scantlings  were  “My  Lady’s  Easter 
hat.” 

I  don’t  hanker  for  the  future  if  it’s  going  to  be  like  that. 

As  far  as  Liebermann  was  concerned,  the  future 
of  the  Secession  was  not  to  be  “like  that.”  With 
Leistikow,  Ury,  Slevogt,  Corinth  and  the  other 
toreadors  who  rallied  round  his  standard  in  the  early 
days,  he  was  doomed  to  be  excoriated  as  conservative 
to  the  point  of  reaction  by  the  rising  generation  of 
hotspurs.  To-day  Liebermann  is  looked  upon  as 
old-fogeyish  by  “Secessionists,”  because  he  refuses 
to  identify  himself  with  their  extravagances.  He 
found  the  movement  getting  out  of  hand  several 
years  ago,  and  laid  down  the  presidency  of  the 
Berlin  Secession.  Since  then  he  has  been  merely  its 
decorative  Honorary  President.  But  he  has  lived 
to  see  his  ideals  become  the  ruling  force  instead  of 
the  seditious  intruder  clamouring  vainly  for  a 
hearing. 

His  own  artistic  reputation  is  second  to  none 
among  German  artists  of  the  era.  For  twenty  years 
a  senator  of  the  Academy,  his  Alma  Mater,  the 
University  of  Berlin,  has  conferred  on  him  the  title 
of  Professor  and  the  Honorary  Doctor’s  degree. 

160 


MAX  LIEBERMANN 


He  is  a  member  of  the  Societe  Nationale  des  Beaux- 
Arts,  of  the  Societe  Royale  Beige  des  Aquarellistes, 
and  of  the  Cercle  des  Aquarellistes  at  The  Hague. 
Specimens  of  his  works  adorn  the  walls  of  the 
Luxembourg  Museum  in  Paris,  the  Royal  Picture 
Gallery  in  Dresden,  the  Pinakothek  of  Munich,  the 
National  Gallery  and  Kaiser  Friedrich  Museum  in 
Berlin,  and  the  Municipal  Art  Museums  of  Ham¬ 
burg,  Bremen,  Frankfort  and  half  a  dozen  other 
German  cities.  Hardly  a  private  collection  of  note 
in  Germany  is  without  its  Liebermann.  His  etch¬ 
ings  are  to  be  found  in  the  leading  print  cabinets  of 
the  Continent.  The  foremost  apostle  of  the  school 
once  stigmatised  in  exalted  quarters  as  “gutter  art” 
is  content  to  rest  on  the  laurels  already  his.  He 
cherishes  no  ambition  to  hang  between  the  serried 
apotheoses  of  Mars  which  make  the  galleries  of 
Prussian  royal  castles  look  like  museums  of  war. 
A  partisan  of  plain-speaking  and  realistic  expres¬ 
sion — by  preference  in  his  own  unlovely  Berlin 
dialect — he  will  tell  you  that  the  Kaiser  considers 
a  Liebermann  picture  akin  to  an  emetic.  Lieber¬ 
mann  returns  the  compliment  by  ranking  His 
Majesty’s  taste  with  the  passion  of  Louis  XIV. 
for  the  purely  massive  and  decorative  as  the  quin¬ 
tessence  of  greatness  in  art.  Some  of  the  Kaiser’s 
sons,  charmed  with  a  Liebermann  painting,  once 
had  the  temerity  to  vent  their  enthusiasm  in  the 
parental  presence.  They  were  not  encouraged  to 
repeat  the  experiment. 

Liebermann  was  the  ideal  man  to  inject  a  true 
161 


MEN  AROUND  THE  KAISER 

spirit  of  innovation  into  German  art,  because  of  his 
uniquely  cosmopolitan  training.  Though  French 
realism  is  his  pronounced  note,  the  modern  Dutch 
and  Flemish  Schools  were  of  hardly  less  influence 
on  him.  Manet  and  Degas  are  apparently  his 
Buddhas,  especially  the  former,  to  judge  from  the 
works  with  which  the  walls  of  Liebermann’s  home 
are  crowded.  Liebermann’s  first  great  canvas, 
“Women  Plucking  Geese,”  now  a  prized  gem  of 
the  Berlin  National  Gallery,  was  produced  in  1872. 
It  depicts  homely  toil  with  such  dismal  faithfulness 
that  it  has  earned  the  artist  the  epithet  of  “Apostle 
of  Ugliness.”  The  great  Menzel  thought  differently 
about  it.  He  sent  for  Liebermann  and  said:  “So 
you  are  the  perpetrator  of  that  picture?  Well, 
you  know,  you  ought  to  have  your  ears  boxed  with 
it.  It’s  excellent.  But  a  man  doesn’t  paint  that 
sort  of  thing  until  he’s  fifty.”  Liebermann  was  not 
yet  twenty-five  when  he  set  all  Germany  talking 
about  “Women  Plucking  Geese.”  Its  relentless 
simplicity  was  a  striking  departure  from  the 
academic  conventionalities  then  prevailing,  but 
Liebermann’s  emancipation  from  the  dinginess 
which  had  hitherto  characterised  his  colour  schemes 
did  not  take  place  until  his  association  with  Millet, 
the  idealiser  of  labor,  in  the  summer  of  1873.  At 
Barbizon,  alongside  Millet,  Liebermann  studied 
Corot,  Troyon  and  Daubigny,  and,  overcoming  the 
spell  of  Munkacsy,  under  which  he  had  produced 
earlier  pictures  in  Paris,  brightened  his  palette 
correspondingly. 

162 


MAX  LIEBERMANN 


The  compelling  power  of  his  subsequent  special¬ 
isation  in  labor  themes  was  to  make  Liebermann 
known  as  the  German  Millet.  He  was  the  first 
of  German  painters  to  find  the  dignity  of  work 
worthy  of  the  artist’s  brush.  Labourers  in  the 
fields  and  factories,  cobblers,  weavers,  spinners 
and  lace-makers  merited  his  attention  and  inspired 
some  of  his  most  striking  work.  He  never  strove 
to  force  a  story  into  them.  The  note  of  romance 
was  almost  always  lacking.  His  ambition  was  to 
portray  workaday  folk  as  they  are,  absorbed  in 
toil  and  not  as  if  posing  before  a  camera.  “The 
Cobbler’s  Shop,”  in  the  Berlin  National  Gallery, 
is  a  brilliant  specimen,  and  is  one  of  the  productions 
in  which  Liebermann’s  talents  as  a  wizard  of  light 
effects  are  exemplified.  When  the  picture  was  first 
exhibited  in  Paris,  the  French  critic,  M.  Hochede, 
addressing  Liebermann’s  friend  and  co-worker, 
Manet,  made  it  famous  with  these  words:  “If 
you  have  discovered  the  secrets  of  plein  air,  my 
dear  Manet,  Max  Liebermann  has  learned  how 
to  catch  light  within  a  room.  I  would  gladly 
give  up  500  square  metres  of  all  the  paintings 
in  the  Salon  for  the  possession  of  ‘The  Cobbler’s 
Shop.’  ” 

Rembrandt  and  Franz  Hals  had  long  lured 
Liebermann  periodically  to  Llolland,  but  nothing 
was  of  such  paramount  personal  influence  on  him 
as  his  acquaintance  and  friendship  with  Jozef 
Israels,  the  Nestor  of  the  modern  Dutch  School,  on 
whom  Liebermann  has  written  a  masterly  mono- 

163 


MEN  AROUND  THE  KAISER 

graph.  It  was  particularly  the  atmospheric  environ¬ 
ment  of  the  Netherlands  which  incited  the  young 
German  painter  to  revel  in  the  myriad  effects  of 
intermingling  sunlight,  mist  and  haze  which  give 
Dutch  landscapes  a  tinge  all  their  own.  “The  Dunes 
of  Noordwyk,”  a  favorite  haunt  of  Liebermann, 
and  a  score  of  other  pictures  of  Dutch  land,  sea, 
streets,  fields  and  buildings,  tell  of  the  profound 
impression  made  by  Liebermann’s  many  wander¬ 
ings  in  the  Netherlands.  It  was  the  inspiration  of 
Israels’  immortaliser  of  the  aged,  which  generated 
Liebermann’s  fondness  for  painting  old  people. 
His  “Old  Men’s  Home  in  Amsterdam”  won  him 
the  Gold  Medal  of  the  Paris  Salon  in  1881,  and  was 
the  first  distinction  conferred  on  a  German  artist 
since  the  Franco-Prussian  War.  Another  Dutch 
picture  which  fortified  Liebermann’s  fame  in 
France,  “Courtyard  of  the  Orphanage  in  Amster¬ 
dam,”  was  a  triumph  of  light  reproduction.  An 
admiring  Parisian  critic,  who  saw  it  at  the  Salon  of 
1882,  declared  that  Liebermann  had  stolen  some  of 
the  rays  from  the  sun  and  utilised  them  as  if  he 
were  Phoebus  himself.  That  distinguished  English 
critic,  Mr.  P.  G.  Konody,  writing  of  how  Lieber¬ 
mann’s  fame  “had  to  be  echoed  back  from  France, 
Belgium  and  Holland  before  reluctant  compatriots 
awarded  him  the  eminent  position  which  is  his  due 
in  the  history  of  German  art,”  says  that  the  secret 
of  Liebermann’s  art  is  that  his  pictures  “hold  the 
fragrance  of  the  soil  and  the  breezes  of  the  heavens. 
His  people  move  in  their  proper  atmosphere,  and 

164 


MAX  LIEBERMANN 


their  life  is  stated  in  all  its  monotonous  simplicity, 
without  artificial  pathos  or  melodramatic  exaggera¬ 
tion.” 

To-day  Liebermann  devotes  most  of  his  energies 
to  portrait-paintings.  They  reveal  distinct  traces 
of  the  Franz  Hals  influence.  Many  of  the  contem¬ 
porary  great  of  Germany  have  sat  for  him — Prince 
Bulow,  Gerhart  Hauptmann,  Professor  Koch, 
Prince  Lichnowsky,  Emil  Rathenau,  Paul  Ehrlich 
and  Dr.  Bode,  to  mention  a  few  of  the  best  known. 
Liebermann’s  portraits  live  up  to  his  cardinal 
artistic  ideal — photographic  reality  minus  retouch¬ 
ing.  His  famous  “Burgomaster  Dr.  Burchard,  of 
Hamburg,”  by  which  he  is  represented  at  the 
Kaiser-Jubilee  Exhibition  of  Modern  German  Art 
now  being  held  at  the  Royal  Academy  in  Berlin, 
was  so  startlingly  faithful  that  the  burgomaster’s 
family  first  refused  to  allow  it  to  be  exhibited. 
Burchard  sat  for  Liebermann  in  1911.  “I  saw  the 
death  pallor  in  his  face,  and  I  painted  it,”  says  the 
artist.  Burchard  died  in  1912. 

“Art  is  the  only  true  religion,”  opines  this  great 
Secessionist,  who  will  not  admit  that  he  is  an 
atheist.  God  to  him  does  not  mean  dogma.  Art 
is  his  creed,  because  the  only  religion  he  considers 
worth  while  is  an  expression  of  something  within 
you  that  you  can  prove.  He  is  almost  savagely 
jealous  of  his  Judaism.  “Nothing  in  the  world — 
absolutely  nothing,”  he  avers,  “will  ever  persuade 
me  to  renounce  the  nativity  of  my  fathers.”  He 
calls  himself  an  aboriginal  Berliner  because  there 

165 


MEN  AROUND  THE  KAISER 


are  a  half-dozen  or  more  generations  of  Berliners 
behind  him,  and,  when  he  looks  on  his  own  portraits 
of  himself,  has  no  compunction  in  claiming  that  the 
blood  of  royalty  must  course  in  his  veins.  He  insists 
that  no  such  strongly  accentuated  physiognomy  as 
his — high-arched  eyebrows,  a  hawk-like  nose,  a 
bull-dog  jaw — could  be  aught  but  the  badge  of 
descent  from  a  race  of  Babylonian,  Assyrian  and 
Phoenician  kings. 

When  you  ask  Liebermann  about  the  future  of 
Art,  he  tells  you  that  it  rests  in  the  hands  of  artists, 
and  not  of  Providence.  “God  fights  on  the  side 
of  the  biggest  talents,”  is  one  of  his  pithy  epigrams. 
His  dachshund,  “Manne,”  plays  a  great  role  in 
the  painter’s  daily  life.  Like  Schopenhauer,  he 
says  he  would  not  care  to  live  if  there  were  no  dogs. 
“They  are  the  best  companions,”  he  explains. 
“They  neither  talk  back  nor  contradict.  Can  as 
much  be  said  of  a  woman?”  He  says  the  raison 
d’etre  of  Secessionism  was  a  bread-and-butter  desire 
to  materialise  idealism.  “Nowadays,”  he  adds, 
“the  order  of  things  is  reversed.  The  world 
idealises  materialism.”  Liebermann  cares  nothing 
for  music  or  drama.  He  will  only  hear  Mozart 
operas.  Though  a  modern  of  moderns  himself,  he 
regards  Wagner  “Germany’s  crowning  misfortune,” 
complains  that  he  cannot  fathom  Richard  Strauss, 
and  foresees  the  eventual  return  of  wayward 
twentieth-century  musical  ideals  to  Mozart.  Lieber¬ 
mann  invented  a  new  tax  in  Germany,  the 
classic  land  of  imposts — a  tariff  on  autographs. 

1 66 


MAX  LIEBERMANN 


Admirers  who  covet  his  signature  receive  the  fol¬ 
lowing  printed  notice : 

Autograph  Tax 

Herr  Liebermann  does  not  derive  any 
more  satisfaction  from  sending  autographs 
or  packing  up  autograph-albums.  Any¬ 
body  who  wants  his  signature  must  first 
furnish  evidence  that  he  has  given  at 
least  twenty  marks  to  charity. 

It  was  well  that  Max  Liebermann  revolted  even 
against  his  parents  and  went  in  for  painting  surrep¬ 
titiously.  Had  they  had  their  way  he  might  to-day 
have  been  nothing  but  a  great  business  man;  but 
the  world  of  beauty  would  have  been  incalculably 
the  poorer.  Liebermann  cherishes  his  parents  in 
pious  reverence.  The  luxurious  home  in  which  he 
lives  is  that  in  which  they  raised  him,  and  the  only 
specimen  of  his  own  craftsmanship  on  the  whole 
artistic  premises  is  the  life-size  portrait  of  his 
mother  and  father. 


XX 


DERNBURG 

SEVEN  years  ago  this  coming  autumn,  the 
Kaiser  tried  a  bold  experiment.  He  made 
a  Cabinet  Minister  out  of  a  business  man 
who  had  nothing  to  recommend  him  but  sheer 
ability.  Though  Germany  is  the  vaunted  land  of 
efficiency,  the  experiment  failed.  Bernhard  Dern- 
burg,  commoner-banker  of  Jewish  origin,  summoned 
to  clean  the  Augean  stables  of  muddled  German 
colonial  administration  in  September,  1906,  was 
already  in  June,  1910,  a  thing  of  the  political  past. 
His  career  had  lasted  less  than  four  years.  There 
was  no  place  for  mere  capacity  in  a  Government 
saturated  with  bureaucracy,  and  Dernburg  had  to 
go.  Hailed  at  home  and  abroad  as  the  German 
Joseph  Chamberlain,  because  of  his  singular  resem¬ 
blance  to  the  greatest  of  colonial  secretaries  in 
antecedents  and  methods,  Herr  Dernburg  committed 
the  revolutionary  and  fatal  blunder  of  applying 
business  ethics  to  the  conduct  of  Germany’s  colonies. 
His  ultimate  downfall  was  as  inevitable  as  the 
grave.  He  was  not  the  first  to  strike  his  colours 
to  the  system  into  which  he  had  been  so  uncon¬ 
ventionally  pitchforked,  and  he  will  not  be  the  last. 


168 


DERNBURG 


Germany’s  oversea  possessions,  embracing  in 
square  miles  an  area  very  many  times  that  of  the 
Empire  in  Europe,  were  irreverently  and  variously 
known  prior  to  the  Dernburg  era,  as  sand-wastes 
and  graveyards  for  subsidies.  Hardly  any  Germans, 
except  officials  and  soldiers,  ever  went  to  them. 
Togoland,  Kamerun,  German  South-West  and  East 
Africa,  Kiau-Chau  and  the  dependencies  in  the 
far  Pacific,  in  and  about  the  Samoan  Islands, 
figured  relentlessly  on  the  wrong  side  of  the  Imperial 
ledger.  The  Fatherland’s  cup  of  colonial  misery 
finally  overflowed  when  to  the  ordinary  burdens 
of  Empire  were  added  the  heavy  sacrifices  in 
blood  and  treasure  of  a  stubborn  rebellion  in  South- 
West  Africa.  The  able  gentlemen  of  the  green- 
table  system  found,  less  to  their  indignation  than  to 
their  astonishment,  that  bureaucracy  and  colonising 
do  not  go  hand  in  hand.  Half  a  dozen  Gelieimrate 
and  Herren  Doktorcn  had  been  tried  at  the  Colonial 
Office.  All  had  failed.  The  last  to  be  found  want¬ 
ing  was  a  kinsman  of  the  Kaiser  himself,  Prince 
Ernst  von  Hohenlohe-Langenburg.  Dernburg  was 
relied  upon  to  do  for  the  colonies  what  he  had  made 
a  reputation  for  doing  as  a  rejuvenator  of  industrial 
and  financial  lame-ducks — to  put  them  on  their  feet. 

Patriotism  of  a  high  order  induced  Dernburg  to 
desert  business  for  office.  He  gave  up  the  manag¬ 
ing-directorship  of  a  great  bank  worth  $50,000  a 
year,  and  a  dozen  company  directorships  netting  him 
half  as  much  again,  for  a  paltry  Cabinet  salary  of 
$6,250  and  a  glorious  opportunity  to  fail.  But  the 

169 


MEN  AROUND  THE  KAISER 


Kaiser  was  looking  for  a  specialist  in  obstacle- 
smashing,  and  when  Dernburg’s  record  as  a  financial 
life  saver  was  laid  before  him,  William  II.  declared 
he  had  found  the  man.  The  dramatic  appointment 
of  the  self-made  young  son  of  the  people,  whose 
father  was  a  working  journalist  on  the  staff  of  a 
Berlin  newspaper,  speedily  followed.  His  presence 
on  the  Government  bench  in  Parliament  infused 
new  life  into  that  galaxy  of  bureaucratic  efficiency. 
Before  he  had  been  in  office  three  months  his  ag¬ 
gressive  personality  was  all-pervading.  In  the  pas¬ 
sionate  Reichstag  electoral  crisis  which  he  himself 
provoked,  he  was  the  dominating  figure.  The 
campaign  was  fought  singly  on  the  issue  Dernburg 
raised — the  preservation  and  development  of  the 
colonies.  Taking  the  hustings  as  chief  spokesman 
for  the  Government,  he  toured  the  country,  north 
and  south,  east  and  west,  preaching  everywhere  in 
glowing  terms  the  gospel  of  Germany’s  future 
oversea.  He  developed  remarkable  powers  as  a 
campaigner  and  political  fighter.  Over  night  he 
became  the  strong  man  of  Prince  Billow’s  Govern¬ 
ment,  achieving  within  four  months  of  his  entrance 
upon  official  life  renown  and  meteoric  popularity. 
When  the  votes  were  counted,  the  unholy  alliance 
of  clericalism  and  socialism,  which  had  defied  Dern¬ 
burg’s  Colonial  Estimates  and  precipitated  the 
general  election,  found  itself  shorn  of  power. 

Dernburg’s  name  now  meant  energy,  daring  and 
success.  The  wise  men  and  grey  beards  of  the  ante¬ 
diluvian  System  mopped  their  spectacles,  aghast. 

170 


DERNBURG 


His  enemies  became  numerous  and  industrious. 
They  declared  he  could  not,  and  would  not,  last. 
The  aristocratic  caste,  which  monopolises  high 
office  in  Germany  by  inherited  tradition,  regardless 
of  merit,  bitterly  resented  the  all-conquering  prog¬ 
ress  of  a  commoner  of  Semitic  ancestry.  They 
called  him  unmannered.  They  chided  him  for  his 
awkwardness  in  Court  dress.  They  said  his  whole 
bearing  in  his  new  surroundings  was  manifestly 
insufferable.  But  he  went  on  doing  things  at  the 
cobwebbed  Colonial  Office. 

Anybody  familiar  with  Dernburg’s  banking  career 
could  have  told  the  gilded  popinjays,  whose  sus¬ 
ceptibilities  he  so  grievously  offended,  that  his 
distinguishing  characteristic  is  Riicksichtslosigkcit 
— cold-blooded,  unrelenting  disregard  of  anything 
but  his  objective.  Prof.  Bergmann,  Germany’s 
great  surgeon,  asked  once  by  a  wounded  soldier  in 
a  field  hospital  what  could  be  done  for  him,  replied : 
“Decapitation.”  Decapitation  had  been  Dernburg’s 
guiding  principle  when  some  desperate  financial 
project  was  brought  to  his  operating  room  at  the 
Darmstadter  Bank.  He  tackled  the  moribund 
German  colonies  in  the  same  spirit.  Deceased 
organs,  administrative  scandals,  red  tape,  old 
fogeyism  and  incompetence  were  lopped  off  merci¬ 
lessly  by  this  political  surgeon,  who  cared  nothing 
for  rank  and  title,  and  developed  an  annoying 
habit  of  insisting  on  proved  merit  as  the  price  of 
connection  with  the  colonial  service.  Shirt-sleeves 
administration,  as  Americans  call  it,  was  the  regime 

i?1 


MEN  AROUND  THE  KAISER 


installed  by  the  fearless  innovator  who  learned  to 
“hustle”  in  the  frenzied  din  of  Wall  Street. 

Dernburg  is  in  his  fiftieth  year.  Stocky  of  build, 
square-shouldered,  with  a  grizzly  brown  beard 
framing  a  set  of  heavy  jaws,  determination  and 
force  are  writ  large  across  his  physiognomy  which 
bears  distinct  traces  of  Hebraic  extraction.  He  is 
descended  from  a  long  line  of  Hessian-Rhenish 
ancestors,  so  famed  for  intellectual  attainments  as 
scholars,  rabbis,  lawyers  and  writers,  that  bright 
men  in  the  region  were  described  as  having 
“Dernburg  heads.”  As  a  lad  of  nineteen,  Dernburg 
was  sent  to  study  banking  methods  in  New  York, 
where  he  served  a  three-years’  apprenticeship. 
Returning  to  Berlin  as  a  clerk  in  the  Deutsche  Bank, 
young  Dernburg  speedily  revealed  the  organising 
ability  which  was,  at  forty-two,  to  call  him  into  the 
councils  of  the  Empire. 

About  this  time  the  Deutsche  Bank  founded  the 
first  trust  company  in  Germany  for  the  purpose  of 
salving  wrecked  financial  and  industrial  concerns. 
Herr  Dernburg  was  made  managing  director.  He 
had  conducted  its  affairs  only  a  few  months  when 
he  attracted  national  attention  by  skilful  resuscita¬ 
tion  of  some  practically  defunct  mortgage-banks 
which  wiseacres  had  abandoned  as  hopeless  cases. 
The  economic  crisis  of  1900,  which  drove  the  Leip- 
ziger  Bank  and  other  staunch  German  commer¬ 
cial  craft  into  dry  dock  to  repair  leaks,  gave  Dern¬ 
burg  his  great  opportunity.  He  was  summoned  to 
the  chief  directorship  of  the  Bank  fur  Handel  und 

172 


DERNBURG 


Industrie  better  known  as  the  Darmstadter  Bank, 
where  he  enjoyed  full  scope  for  the  exercise  of  his 
daring  strokes  of  financial  genius.  They  were 
admittedly  harsh,  revolutionary  and  staggering  in 
their  audacity,  but  almost  always  effective.  Herr 
Dernburg  was  in  the  midst  of  his  banking  career, 
when  asked  to  bring  his  sledge  hammer  and  axe  to 
the  Colonial  Office.  He  responded  to  the  call  on  the 
express  condition  that  he  should  be  permitted  to 
continue  swinging  them  in  his  new  field  of  use¬ 
fulness. 

He  did  not  forthwith  convert  the  colonies  into 
El  Dorados.  They  continued  to  reveal  an  insatiable 
appetite  for  subsidies,  but  they  ceased  to  be  mere 
playgrounds  for  civilian  and  military  martinets, 
and  began  to  attract  the  attention  of  genuine 
colonisers — bankers,  shippers,  merchants,  farmers 
and  traders.  “Colonial  fatigue,”  an  old-time 
German  malady,  grew  less.  The  sand- wastes  of 
Africa  and  the  Pacific  were  no  longer  looked  upon 
merely  as  so  many  millstones  around  the  Imperial 
neck.  Having  brought  a  semblance  of  order  out  of 
chaos  at  the  Colonial  Office  itself,  Dernburg  gave 
Wilhelmstrasse  traditions  another  jolt  by  going  to 
Africa  in  his  first  year  of  office  to  study  the  colonies 
on  the  spot.  Predecessors  had  been  content  to  know 
about  them  from  perfunctory  reports  of  military 
and  civil  governors.  While  fellow  Ministers  were 
holiday-making  at  the  seashore  or  in  the  mountains, 
Dernburg  was  trekking  in  ducks  and  helmet  across 
the  sun-baked  veldt  of  East  and  South-West  Africa, 

173 


MEN  AROUND  THE  KAISER 


making  the  face-to-face  acquaintance  of  sub¬ 
ordinate  administrators,  studying  the  ravages  of 
the  Herero  rebellion  and  learning  by  personal 
observation  exactly  what  was  needed  to  improve 
the  lot  of  each  particular  community.  He  scan¬ 
dalised  bureaucratic  functionaries  at  home  by  pro¬ 
claiming  the  heretical  doctrine  that  Africa  was  a 
black  man’s  country,  and  that  natives  had  to  be 
treated  from  some  other  than  the  Berlin  barrack- 
yard  point  of  view.  He  returned  to  Germany 
to  give  his  countrymen  an  entirely  new  conception 
of  their  mission  and  opportunities  as  a  colonial 
power.  In  1908,  still  insatiable  for  firsthand  knowl¬ 
edge,  Dernburg  went  to  Africa  again,  this  time 
extending  his  travels  to  the  Transvaal,  Cape  Colony, 
Natal  and  Rhodesia,  to  study  British  colonial 
practices  at  work.  Shortly  after  his  second  trip 
across  the  equator,  Dernburg  established  the  budding 
diamond  industry  in  German  South-West  Africa  on 
an  admirable  basis.  Intent,  above  all  else,  on  de¬ 
veloping  the  economic  importance  of  the  colonies, 
Dernburg  chose  as  his  next  field  of  exploration  the 
United  States,  where  he  spent  eight  busy  weeks 
investigating  the  cotton  belt,  with  a  view  to  apply¬ 
ing  American  plantation  methods  to  cotton  culture 
in  Togoland  and  East  Africa. 

During  all  these  strenuous  months  of  loyal  and 
effective  service,  Dernburg’s  foes  were  remorselessly 
at  work.  The  Roman  Catholic  Centre  party,  which 
he  had  humbled  at  the  very  outset  of  his  career,  had 
long  coveted  his  scalp.  Through  the  years  they  had 

U4 


DERNBURG 


gathered  many  an  ally  outside  their  own  ranks, 
for  Dernburg  the  Ruthless  had  the  gentle  art  of 
making  enemies.  Prince  Billow,  under  whom  the 
Colonial  Secretary  had  taken  office  and  enjoyed 
much  latitude,  was  no  longer  Chancellor.  Cleri¬ 
calism  had  again  become  the  power  behind  the 
Governmental  throne.  Dernburg’s  head  was  one 
of  its  first  demands.  Since  the  summer  of  1910 
he  has  been  what  a  distinguished  United  States 
Senator  once  described  himself  to  be — a  states¬ 
man  out  of  a  job.  Report  periodically  associates 
Dernburg’s  name  with  the  managing-directorship 
of  some  great  commerical  or  financial  organisation. 
If  he  hankers  to  return  to  his  first  love,  business,  he 
has  apparently  not  yet  found  anything  quite  to  his 
liking. 

A  year  ago  he  was  suggested  for  the  post  of 
Chief  Burgomaster  of  Berlin;  but  Dernburg’s  thirst 
for  the  joys  of  public  office  may  be  considered 
effectually  quenched.  The  loss  is  decidedly  not  his. 


XXI 


COUNT  VON  BERNSTORFF 

NO  single  department  of  Germany’s  foreign 
relations  lies  closer  to  the  heart  of  the 
Kaiser  than  his  “American  policy.”  Not 
even  an  Entente  with  his  British  kinsmen,  to  which 
William  II.  has  aspired  passionately  since  the 
Kruger  telegram,  has  claimed  more  of  his  devotion 
than  the  attainment  of  a  close  and  cordial  under¬ 
standing  with  the  world’s  greatest  Republic.  If 
George  Washington’s  embargo  on  entangling 
foreign  coalitions  were  not  holy  writ  for  Americans, 
an  alliance  with  Germany  would  be  theirs  for  the 
asking — if  the  Kaiser  could  have  his  way.  The 
enthusiasm  for  a  German-American  zweibund 
might  be  less  pronounced  in  the  Fatherland  at  large; 
the  United  States  is  still  called  and  considered 
“Dollarica”  by  many  contemptuous  Germans,  who 
would  look  upon  political  partnership  with  “a  race 
of  money-grabbers”  as  beneath  their  Imperial 
dignity.  No  such  prejudices  are  cherished  by 
William  the  Hustler,  who  is  himself  often  more 
Transatlantic  in  his  methods  and  viewpoint  than 
Teutonic.  Times  without  number  and  in  countless 
respects  he  is  said  to  resemble  Colonel  Roosevelt. 
Nobody  is  ever  prosecuted  in  Germany  for  com¬ 
paring  the  Kaiser  to  the  most  typical  of  Americans. 

176 


COUNT  VON  BERNSTORFF 

Emperor  William’s  “American  policy”  was 
initiated  in  1902  when  he  dispatched  his  brother, 
Admiral  Prince  Henry  of  Prussia,  on  a  yacht¬ 
launching  commission  to  the  United  States.  The 
Prince’s  visit  became  the  forerunner  of  a  decade  of 
conspicuous  and  unceasing  courtesies  to  America 
and  Americans,  all  aimed  at  laying  the  foundation 
of  a  broad  political  friendship.  A  dispatch-boat 
in  the  German  Navy  was  christened  “Alice 
Roosevelt.”  The  University  Exchange  Professor¬ 
ship  between  Berlin,  Columbia,  and  Harvard  was 
instituted.  American  millionaires  began  to  crowd 
natives  at  drawing-rooms  of  the  German  Court.  A 
statue  of  Frederick  the  Great  was  presented  to 
the  United  States  Government.  Morgan  and 
Carnegie  became  honoured  guests  at  Kiel  Regatta 
week.  American  universities  and  colleges  began  to 
get  presents  of  Germanic  museums  with  the  Kaiser’s 
card  attached.  There  was  inaugurated,  all  along 
the  line,  what  somebody  dubbed  the  era  of  smiles 
and  bouquets.  To  introduce  it  at  Washington 
itself,  the  Kaiser  sent  there  as  his  ambassador  the 
best-fitted  diplomat  in  his  service,  Baron  Speck  von 
Sternburg,  who  had  lived  long  in  the  United  States, 
knew  President  Roosevelt  well,  and  possessed  an 
American  wife.  Sternburg  died  in  harness  in  1908, 
in  the  midst  of  brilliantly  effective  furtherance  of 
his  Sovereign’s  designs  on  American  favour.  His 
successor  was  a  man  of  the  same  stamp,  Count 
Johann  von  Bernstorff,  who  not  only  took  to 
shirt-sleeves  diplomacy  as  gracefully  as  Sternburg 

1 77 


MEN  AROUND  THE  KAISER 


had  before  him,  but  even  excelled  him  in  the 
arts  of  which  an  ambassador,  desirous  of  serv¬ 
ing  his  country  well  at  Washington,  must  be  a 
master. 

Count  Bernstorff  may  be  called  the  highest  type 
of  modern  German  diplomat.  With  one  or  two 
notable  exceptions,  all  the  other  aristocrats  wearing 
gold  lace  and  dining  out  on  Germany’s  behalf 
abroad,  are  diplomatists  of  the  old  school,  paragons 
alike  of  formality  and  the  circumlocutory  niceties  of 
international  intercourse.  The  Fatherland  had  had 
many  ministers  and  ambassadors  of  that  ilk  at 
Washington  before  the  days  of  Sternburg  and 
Bernstorff,  and  German-American  relations  for  a 
generation  were  periodically  strained. 

Bernstorff,  by  temperament  and  training,  is  the 
kind  of  envoy  who  believes  in  laying  his  cards  on 
the  table.  There  is  nothing  Machiavellian  in  his 
methods.  He  does  not  transact  diplomatic  business 
with  a  dark  lantern.  He  is  not  afraid  to  talk. 
Directness  is  the  cudgel  by  which  he  lays  the  most 
store.  He  thinks  the  sage  who  said  that  tarriers 
in  Rome  ought  to  do  as  the  Romans  had  ambassa¬ 
dors  especially  in  mind.  He  began  cutting  his  cloth 
to  the  American  measure  from  the  hour  he  set  foot 
in  Massachusetts  Avenue. 

That  accounts  for  the  fact  that  Count  Bernstorff, 
who  was  born  in  London,  and  talks  English  more 
gracefully  than  a  good  many  natives,  is  often 
spoken  of  as  a  “better  American”  than  three- 
quarters  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  United  States. 

178 


COUNT  VON  BERNSTORFF 

He  is  an  intense  admirer  of  its  institutions  and 
people,  and  preferred  a  daughter  of  Uncle  Sam  for 
a  wife  to  a  lady  of  his  own  noble  caste.  Toadying, 
however,  is  no  part  whatever  of  his  professional 
make-up.  When  German  interests  need  to  be 
advocated  at  the  State  Department  or  the  White 
House,  Count  Bernstorff  is  prompt  and  resolute, 
and  he  has  an  incorrigible  habit  of  getting  what  he 
wants.  Pan-Germans  and  industrial  magnates  at 
home  want  more  than  Bernstorff  does,  because  he 
knows  just  how  much  is  to  be  had.  They  account 
no  German  ambassador  at  Washington  a  success 
who  fails  to  annihilate  the  Monroe  Doctrine,  annex 
South  America  and  inaugurate  free  trade  in  the 
United  States.  Bernstorff,  being  an  optimist, 
dreams  occasionally  of  the  Millennium,  and  would 
not  prove  helpless  if  he  should  run  across  it;  but 
until  it  is  within  hailing  distance  he  believes  in  con¬ 
centrating  on  the  pursuit  of  the  attainable. 

Trade  relations  are  the  bedrock  of  diplomacy 
in  the  twentieth  century,  and  German-American 
political  intercourse  concerns  them  almost  exclu¬ 
sively.  Count  Bernstorff’s  greatest  diplomatic 
triumph  at  Washington  had  to  do  with  the 
unromantic  question  of  potash.  Germany  has  a 
world  monopoly  of  that  queen  of  fertilisers,  and  has 
long  laid  heavy  tribute  on  dependent  foreign 
customers.  Americans  buy  enormous  quantities 
of  it  and,  having  become  tired  of  what  they  con¬ 
sidered  extortion,  bought  some  German  mines 
in  1910  and  essayed  to  import  their  own  potash. 

179 


MEN  AROUND  THE  KAISER 

The  German  Government  is  a  mine-owner  itself  and 
a  potent  factor  in  the  Syndicate — the  German  for 
Trust — which  arbitrarily  controls  potash  output 
and  prices.  If  the  Americans  succeeded  in  coming 
into  the  German  market  and  mining  their  own  pot¬ 
ash  the  Syndicate’s  halcyon  days  were  numbered. 
To  prevent  such  a  disaster  the  Kaiser’s  Government 
came  to  the  rescue  with  a  set  of  laws  which  practi¬ 
cally  made  it  prohibitive  for  foreigners  to  extract 
potash  from  the  bowels  of  the  German  earth. 
America  protested  against  the  violation  of  the  pri¬ 
vate  property  rights  of  its  nationals  by  act  of  Parlia¬ 
ment.  For  a  while  the  German-American  political 
horizon  was  cloudier  than  at  any  time  since  Manila. 
There  were  mutterings  and  veiled  threats  of  a  tariff 
war.  Bernstorff  was  firm,  but  smiling.  He  succeeded 
eventually  in  making  the  United  States  Government 
believe — sense  of  humour  is  one  of  his  chief  assets — • 
that  Germany’s  action  was  based  primarily  upon 
an  internal  policy  of  conserving  natural  resources 
and  also  upon  a  corrective  policy  with  respect  to 
Corporation  activities.  Expressed  thus  in  terms 
of  “live  issues”  within  the  United  States  itself, 
Bernstorff’s  presentation  of  the  case  seemed  plaus¬ 
ible  and  legitimate  to  President  Taft  and  Secretary 
Knox,  and  the  potash  incident  was  closed.  The 
spirit  of  broad-gauge  statesmanship  which  induced 
them  to  accept  Count  Bernstorff’s  argument  re¬ 
flected  vastly  more  credit  on  the  Washington  ad¬ 
ministration  than  their  acceptance  of  the  “resigna¬ 
tion”  of  Dr.  David  Jayne  Hill,  the  accomplished 

180 


COUNT  VON  BERNSTORFF 


American  Ambassador  at  Berlin,  who  left  office 
under  suspicion  of  having  compromised  his  country 
in  the  potash  negotiations.  It  may  be  set  down  here 
that  it  was  the  Pittsburg  diplomacy,  singly  and 
alone,  which  caused  America  to  withdraw  from  the 
controversy  so  ignominiously. 

Bernstorff  was  cradled  in  diplomacy,  for  his 
father  was  Prussian  Minister  at  the  Court  of  St. 
James  when  Count  Johann  was  born  in  1862. 
English  became  his  mother-tongue.  He  served  as 
an  officer  in  the  Artillery  Guards  at  Berlin  from 
1881  to  1889,  having  meantime  married  on  his 
twenty-fifth  birthday  in  1887  Miss  Jeanne  Lucke- 
meyer,  of  New  York.  His  diplomatic  career  be¬ 
gan  as  an  attache  of  the  German  Embassy  in 
Constantinople.  Successive  periods  of  service  in  the 
Foreign  Office  at  Berlin,  the  legations  of  Belgrade, 
Dresden  and  Munich,  and  the  embassies  at  St. 
Petersburg  and  London,  filled  sixteen  busy  years. 
Equipped  with  this  wide  cosmopolitan  experience, 
Count  Bernstorff  received  his  first  Ministerial  ap¬ 
pointment  as  diplomatic  agent  and  consul-general 
at  Cairo  in  1906.  For  four  years  previous  he  was 
Councillor  of  Embassy  in  London,  where  he  was 
an  effective  factor  in  reconstructing  Anglo-German 
relations  after  the  bad  blood  engendered  by  the 
Boer  War.  In  1908  he  became  German  Ambassador 
at  Washington. 

Count  Bernstorff  has  always  found  himself 
peculiarly  at  home  in  the  American  environment, 
because  of  his  extreme  amiability  and  frankness. 

181 


MEN  AROUND  THE  KAISER 


He  has  met  the  Yankee  on  his  own  ground  as  a 
story-teller,  after-dinner  speaker  and  master  of 
repartee.  Asked  once,  shortly  after  his  arrival  in 
Washington,  at  a  dinner  notable  for  the  presence  of 
many  Wall  Street  financiers,  if  he  played  poker, 
Bernstorff  replied :  “It’s  the  only  game  I  know.” 
“How  eminently  fitting  for  the  Kaiser  to  send  you 
to  the  United  States,”  was  the  magnate’s  rejoinder. 
In  his  callow  days  Bernstorff  was  addicted  to  tennis. 
A  superior,  Count  Wolff-Metternich,  remarked  that 
tennis  smacked  of  the  “dancing  age,”  and  recom¬ 
mended  golf.  Bernstorff  forthwith  foreswore  the 
racquet  for  the  driver.  He  was  obviously  the  right 
man  for  the  Taft  era.  He  cultivated  a  fondness  for 
baseball,  too,  hitherto  an  achievement  only  of 
Chinese  diplomats  at  Washington.  An  ambassador 
who  knows  the  value  of  a  straight  flush,  and  under¬ 
stands  the  psychology  of  a  sacrifice  hit,  is  assured 
a  place  in  the  affections  of  the  American  people, 
which  no  mere  alliance  between  their  rulers  and 
governments  could  possibly  strengthen. 

Bernstorff  also  left  behind  him  in  Germany  his 
caste  and  countrymen’s  contempt  for  the  press. 
He  found  that  newspapermen  in  America  were 
not  only  worth  knowing,  but  the  real  wielders 
of  power.  He  shocked  the  flunkeys  who  guard 
the  door  of  the  Kaiser’s  Embassy,  by  giving  orders 
that  the  Washington  correspondents  were  to  be 
shown  in  when  they  called.  Bernstorff  was  quick 
to  grasp,  too,  that  Americans  are  a  speech-making 
and  speech-loving  nation.  He  found  it  was  quite 

.182 


COUNT  VON  BERNSTORFF 


compatible  with  the  dignity  of  the  Hohenzollerns’ 
Minister  Plenipotentiary  to  appear  at  public  dinners 
and  respond  to  toasts.  He  saw  opportunities  to 
break  lances  for  his  Kaiser’s  cause,  by  addressing 
the  faculties  and  students  of  colleges  and  universi¬ 
ties.  No  foreigner  in  so  brief  a  period  has  received 
so  many  honorary  degrees  as  Bernstorff,  who  is  an 
LL.D.,  of  nine  leading  American  institutions  of 
learning. 

Bernstorff’s  political  ideal  is  unity  and  friendship 
between  Germany,  England  and  the  United  States. 
He  does  not  preach  it  publicly,  but  he  advocates  it 
earnestly  on  all  possible  occasions.  Some  day  he 
may  be  called  to  higher  service  at  Berlin.  If  he 
is,  the  English-speaking  race  will  have  a  zealous 
friend  at  the  German  Court. 

The  armour-plate  patriots  of  Rhineland,  West¬ 
phalia  and  Berlin,  which  hanker  to  hang  James 
Monroe  in  effigy,  and  the  export  Jingoes,  who  hate 
tariffs  in  every  country  but  their  own,  look  upon 
Count  Bernstorff  as  an  egregious  failure.  At 
regular  and  explosive  intervals,  they  demand  his 
recall.  The  Kaiser  is  a  man  who  knows  his  business, 
and  that  is  why  he  keeps  Bernstorff  at  Washington. 


XXII 


KRUPP  VON  BOHLEN 

WHEN  the  invincible  hosts  of  the  Balkans 
were  pushing  and  pounding  the  Turk 
back  into  Asia,  Europe  and  the  world 
were  fed  with  the  legend  that  the  primary  cause 
of  the  Ottoman  rout  was  the  lamentable  failure  of 
Krupp  artillery.  There  is  room  for  difference  of 
opinion  on  that  point.  What  is  absolutely  sure  is 
that  no  single  aspersion  cast  on  things  German  by 
captious  critics  in  contemporary  times  ever  wounded 
German  susceptibilities  more  poignantly.  The  house 
of  Krupp  is  a  national  institution  in  the  Fatherland. 
Its  name  is  almost  as  revered  as  that  of  the  Hohen- 
zollerns  itself.  To  slander  it  is  to  affront  the 
nation.  The  firm’s  prestige  is  certain  to  weather  the 
storm  of  recent  events,  which  for  a  while  threatened 
to  undermine  it. 

If  the  omniscient  experts  are  right,  who  assert 
that  Lule  Burgas  and  Kirk  Kilisse  were  lost  on  the 
target-fields  of  Meppen,  fifty-two  war  offices  and 
general  staffs  throughout  the  world  have  been  blun¬ 
dering  for  half  a  century.  To  that  many  different 
governments  Krupp  guns  have  been  supplied,  more 
than  thirty  thousand  in  all.  Twenty-three  States 
in  Europe  are  among  them,  eighteen  in  America, 
six  in  Asia,  and  five  in  Africa.  Germany  herself, 

184 


.u  Krupp  von  Bohlen  und  Halbach 


KRUPP  VON  BOHLEN 


of  course,  heads  the  list  of  the  deluded.  Since  the 
great  exhibition  at  London  in  1851,  when  an  ob¬ 
scure  Rhenish  steelmaker  from  Essen  electrified 
the  military  universe  with  a  six-pounder  of  flawless 
cast  steel,  the  German  Army  and  Navy  have  bought 
twenty-nine  thousand  Krupp  guns.  Those  of  them 
which  will  bark  to-morrow  from  the  turrets  of  the 
Kaiser’s  Dreadnoughts  and  the  ramparts  of  Metz 
and  Konigsberg  will  thunder  forth  a  different 
story  than  the  cannon  of  the  terrified  and  un¬ 
trained  Turk.  When  Armageddon  descends  there 
will  be  men  behind  the  guns  of  Germany’s  artillery. 

On  the  recent  anniversary  of  Emperor  William’s 
birthday,  the  brains  of  Essen — the  two  or  three 
thousand  department-chiefs  and  engineers  who 
conduct  the  Krupp  works — foregathered  for  their 
annual  celebration.  A  scholarly-looking  man,  youth¬ 
ful  and  of  modest  bearing  and  courtly  manner,  was 
the  orator  of  the  occasion.  “Much  has  been  written 
and  talked  of  late,”  he  said,  “about  the  inefficiency 
of  Krupp  guns  and  Krupp  workmanship.  Is  there 
anyone  among  you  who  believes  these  fables?  Is 
there  a  man  here  who  would  not  be  ready  any  time, 
like  myself,  to  take  the  field  against  all  comers  with 
Krupp  guns  and  Krupp  armour?  I  know  you  all 
think  as  I  do — that  each  and  every  man  of  us  has 
the  utmost  confidence  in  these  things  which  are  of 
our  very  selves!”  The  speaker  was  Dr.  Gustav 
Krupp  von  Bohlen  und  Halbach,  husband  of  the 
“cannon  queen,”  Bertha  Krupp,  and  managing  direc¬ 
tor  of  the  vast  arsenal  of  which  she  is  the  sole  owner. 

185 


MEN  AROUND  THE  KAISER 


Dr.  Krupp  von  Bohlen — he  is  best  known  in  that 
abbreviated  style — is  no  longer  merely  Bertha 
Krupp’s  husband.  He  has  ceased  to  be  simply  the 
man  who  married  the  greatest  fortune  in  Germany, 
and  has  become  the  master  of  Essen  in  reality  as 
well  as  title.  Taken  suddenly  from  diplomacy, 
a  career  which  he  inherited  and  was  successfully 
pursuing,  he  has  made  himself  within  seven  brief 
years  a  worthy  leader  of  the  greatest  industrial 
organism  the  world  has  yet  seen.  He  has  proved 
that  he  is  not  an  accident.  The  seventy-five  thou¬ 
sand  members  of  the  Krupp  staff,  and  the  commu¬ 
nity  of  three  hundred  thousand  souls  whom  they 
represent,  look  up  to  Krupp  von  Bohlen  with  the 
same  spirit  of  reverential  loyalty  which  inspired 
three  generations  of  workmen  to  regard  the  Krupps 
as  their  liege  lords.  They,  too,  would  be  ready  to 
follow  where  Krupp  von  Bohlen  leads,  behind  the 
guns  and  impenetrable  armour  they  themselves  have 
forged. 

Travellers  across  the  dreary  panorama  of  Western 
Prussia  from  the  North  Sea  to  Berlin  are  familiar 
with  the  endless  forests  of  chimneys  and  smoke¬ 
stacks  which  dot  the  landscape  in  that  heart  of 
industrial  Germany.  It  is  at  Essen,  in  the  valley  of 
the  Ruhr,  that  the  chimneys  and  the  smoke  are 
thickest.  It  is  as  if  Sheffield  and  Pittsburg  had 
miraculously  been  transplanted  and  rolled  into  one 
throbbing  area  of  twelve  hundred  acres,  two  hun¬ 
dred  and  thirty-five  of  them  under  roof,  which 
comprises  Messrs.  Krupp’s  Essen  works  alone. 

1 86 


KRUPP  VON  BOHLEN 


There  and  at  the  three  neighbouring  fifteen-mile- 
long  gun  ranges  of  Meppen,  thirty-nine  thousand 
men  are  employed.  At  Krupp  collieries  in  Rhine¬ 
land- Westphalia  and  Silesia  ten  thousand  miners 
dig  coal  for  Krupp  branch  works  at  Annen  and 
Gruson,  where  armour-plate  is  made,  and  for  Krupp 
blast  furnaces  at  Rheinhausen,  Duisburg,  Neuwied 
and  Engers,  which  between  them  keep  another 
fifteen  thousand  hands  busy.  At  Kiel  six  thousand 
one  hundred  shipwrights  build  battleships,  torpedo- 
boats  and  submarines  in  Krupp’s  fifty-five-acre 
Germania  dockyard.  In  Germany  and  far-away 
Spain  five  thousand  miners  are  disemboweling  ore 
from  Krupp  iron  mines,  to  be  shipped,  in  the  case 
of  the  foreign  product,  in  Krupp  steamers,  which 
unload  their  burden  at  Krupp  docks  in  Rotterdam, 
there  to  be  transhipped  down  the  Rhine,  to  emerge 
some  day  as  armour,  Dreadnoughts,  siege  guns 
and  murderous  shell,  “Made  in  Germany.”  The 
Krupp  pay-roll  totals  $25,000,000  a  year. 

Dr.  Von  Bohlen  und  Halbach — one  is  never  quite 
sure  whether  he  ought  to  be  called  by  his  original, 
double-barrelled  name,  or  Krupp  von  Bohlen,  as 
the  Kaiser  gave  him  and  his  male  heir  permission 
to  call  themselves  the  day  the  young  diplomat 
married  Bertha  Krupp — was  Secretary  of  the 
Prussian  Legation  at  the  Vatican  when  he  met/ 
wooed  and  won  the  cannon  queen.  Previously  he 
had  served  at  the  German  Embassy  in  Washing¬ 
ton,  and  at  the  Legation  in  Pekin  through  the  try¬ 
ing  days  of  the  Boxer  Siege.  He  is  forty-two 

187 


MEN  AROUND  THE  KAISER 


years  old  and  was  born  at  The  Hague,  while  his 
father  was  the  diplomatic  representative  of  the 
Grand  Duchy  of  Baden  at  the  Netherlands  Court. 
A  native  of  Holland,  Dr.  Krupp  von  Bohlen  has 
American  blood  in  his  veins,  for  his  parents  were 
both  born  in  Philadelphia.  His  maternal  grand¬ 
father  was  a  general  of  the  United  States  Army, 
and  lies  buried  in  a  soldier’s  grave  in  Virginia. 
His  engagement  to  Fraulein  Krupp  was  an  ideal 
love  match.  They  became  acquainted  while  she 
and  her  mother  and  sister  were  passing  an  Easter 
holiday  in  Italy.  In  October,  1906,  they  were 
married  at  the  Krupp  mansion,  “On  the  Hill,”  a 
beautiful  but  unpretentious  home  set  high  on  one 
of  the  wooded  peaks  which  envelop  Essen.  The 
Kaiser  attended  the  wedding  and  toasted  the  couple 
in  the  name  of  the  Empire,  for  whose  defence  and 
development  the  name  of  Krupp  denotes  so  much. 

Friedrich  Alfred  Krupp,  the  third  proprietor  of 
the  business,  who  died  in  1902,  aged  only  forty- 
eight,  had  no  sons,  and  the  gigantic  properties  passed 
into  the  sole  possession  of  his  eldest  daughter, 
Bertha,  at  that  time  a  minor.  Her  mother,  acting  as 
guardian  and  carrying  out  a  testamentary  provision, 
turned  the  firm  into  a  joint-stock  company  in  1903, 
with  a  capital  of  $40,000,000,  divided  into  160,000 
shares  of  $250  each,  all  but  four  of  which  went  to 
^Fraulein  Krupp.  For  the  mother  and  younger 
sister,  Barbara,  the  late  Herr  Krupp  provided 
independently  and  generously,  but  they  are  poor 
compared  to  the  fortune  of  the  cannon  queen, 

188 


KRUPP  VON  BOHLEN 


which  to-day  is  estimated  at  close  to  $75,000,000. 
She  draws  10  per  cent,  dividends  from  her  shares 
in  Krupps,  Ltd.,  now  capitalised  at  $45,000,000, 
and  with  other  incomes  is  believed  to  be  in  the 
enjoyment  of  an  annual  revenue  which  equals,  if 
it  does  not  exceed,  that  of  the  Kaiser,  which  is 
$5,500,000.  The  next  richest  person  in  Germany, 
Prince  Henckel  von  Donnersmarck,  a  Silesian  coal 
and  iron  magnate,  has  an  income  of  only  $3,275,- 
000. 

Germany’s  richest  family  is  one  of  its  very  sim¬ 
plest.  Thousands  of  middle-class  households  live 
more  pretentiously.  Both  Frau  von  Bohlen  and 
her  husband  look  upon  the  inheritance  of  the 
Krupp  business  as  a  sacred  trust.  They  are  far 
more  interested  in  the  development  of  the  firm’s 
great  fund  for  invalid  employes,  to  which  they  are 
constantly  adding,  or  in  their  splendid  working¬ 
men’s  colonies,  or  in  the  extensive  homes  for  aged, 
incapacitated  and  pensioned  workmen,  than  in  de¬ 
feating  Schneider-Creusot,  Vickers-Maxim  or  the 
Bethlehem  Steel  Company  in  a  competition  for 
foreign  gun  and  armour  orders.  The  castles  of 
kings  are  open  to  them,  but  it  is  seldom  they  are 
persuaded  to  desert  the  homely  family  life  of  Villa 
Hiigel  for  the  glittering  joys  of  high  society.  In 
Berlin,  when  the  aristocrats  and  plutocrats  of  the 
realm  foregather  for  the  Court  season,  Herr  and 
Frau  von  Bohlen  are  rare  guests.  When  they  come, 
they  live  unobtrusively  at  an  hotel.  Their  travelling 
at  other  times  is  mostly  confined  to  a  brief  “cure” 

189 


MEN  AROUND  THE  KAISER 

outing  at  some  German  spa.  They  are  old-time 
frequenters  of  Kiel  for  the  June  regatta  week, 
their  speedy  schooner  Germania  being  an  ancient 
foe  of  the  Kaiser’s  Meteor.  Yachting  is  their  keen¬ 
est  hobby.  But  the  vast  bulk  of  their  time  and 
thought  is  devoted  to  their  home,  their  three  chil¬ 
dren  and  their  workpeople. 

Their  domestic  and  philanthropic  activities  by 
no  means  debar  them  from  maintaining  a  lively 
and  highly  intelligent  interest  in  their  gigantic  busi¬ 
ness.  Herr  Krupp  von  Bohlen,  since  1908  the  Chair¬ 
man  of  the  Company’s  board,  is  at  his  office  in 
the  big  new  administration  building,  in  the  centre 
of  the  Essen  plant,  every  morning  at  nine.  He 
devotes  the  entire  forenoon  to  conferences  with 
subordinate  directors  and  department-chiefs.  The 
reins  of  the  colossal  undertaking  are  always  in  his 
hands.  He  is  said  to  have  mastered  the  mysteries 
of  steel  to  an  astonishing  degree.  Many  important 
extensions  of  plant  have  taken  place  under  his 
direct  supervision.  His  wife  has  known  about  ingots 
and  guns  and  armour  for  a  long  time.  Her  late 
father  grounded  her  thoroughly  in  the  elementary 
principles  of  the  trade  which  the  Krupps  have  fol¬ 
lowed  for  over  one  hundred  years.  She  goes 
regularly  to  the  administrative  offices,  sometimes 
three  or  four  times  a  week,  and  is  accustoming  her 
five-year-old  son,  the  future  owner  of  Krupps,  to 
the  rumble  and  roar  of  rolling-mills  by  taking  him 
along  on  occasion.  Sometimes  Frau  von  Bohlen 
attends  meetings  of  her  board  of  directors — she  is 

190 


KRUPP  VON  BOHLEN 

seldom  outvoted — and  has  been  known  more  than 
once,  with  a  flash  of  genuine  genius,  to  suggest 
ideas  and  policies  of  far-reaching  import. 

Though  brought  up  to  be  a  cannon  queen  by  her 
father,  Frau  von  Bohlen’s  education  at  the  hands  of 
her  mother  was  essentially  that  of  a  girl  in  whom  the 
homely  virtues  of  the  German  Hausfrau  are  incul¬ 
cated  as  those  which  most  adorn  womankind. 
Like  all  of  her  class,  she  is  an  accomplished  mother, 
besides  being  a  mistress  of  the  minor  talents  of 
language,  music  and  equestrianism.  She  is  neither 
a  suffragette  nor  a  butterfly.  She  is  vastly  more 
absorbed  in  the  A.B.C.’s  of  her  children  than  in  votes 
for  women  or  the  latest  intelligence  from  the  Rue 
de  la  Paix.  Her  public  appearances,  even  in  Essen, 
are  extremely  infrequent.  Almost  always  they  are 
confined  to  the  recurring  philanthropic  or  com¬ 
memorative  festivities  of  the  works.  She  never 
fails  to  preside  over  the  annual  celebration  of  her 
father’s  birthday,  which  is  the  occasion  for  bestow¬ 
ing  money  and  other  golden  mementoes  on  employes 
who  have  completed  twenty-five  years  of  service. 
The  number  averages  four  hundred  annually,  and 
Frau  von  Bohlen  insists  on  a  kid-gloved  handshake 
wjth  every  one  of  her  horny-fisted  veterans.  That 
is  one  of  the  little  reasons  why  the  16-inch  gun 
makers  of  Essen  love  their  twenty-seven-year-old 
mistress,  to  whom  their  weal  is  a  religion. 

Villa  Hiigel,  the  Krupp  home,  is  a  capacious 
dwelling-place,  designed  to  dispense  much  and 
comfortable,  but  never  ostentatious,  hospitality. 

I9I 


MEN  AROUND  THE  KAISER 


Its  guest-chambers  are  almost  always  occupied. 
English  and  American  friends  who  visit  Herr  and 
Frau  von  Bohlen  invariably  come  away  charmed 
with  the  unaffected  personalities  of  their  hosts 
and  unable  to  recall  a  word,  a  thought  or  a  bit  of 
environment  which  suggested  anything  but  sim¬ 
plicity  and  complete  domestic  felicity.  The  Krupp 
von  Bohlens  are  inspiring  reminders  that  the  age 
of  luxury  and  splurge  is  still  adorned  by  folk  to 
whom  great  riches  can  never  be  a  curse. 


XXIII 


MAXIMILIAN  HARDEN 

EMPEROR  WILLIAM’S  reign  has  been 
singularly  devoid  of  scandal.  The  private 
lives  of  himself  and  his  large  family  are 
an  unblemished  record  of  exemplary  living.  The 
tongue  of  gossip  has  never  busied  itself  with  the 
Kaiser  in  an  unworthy  connection.  In  one  momen¬ 
tous  instance  he  proved  unfortunate  in  the  choice 
of  his  friends.  That  is  as  near  as  William  II.’s  name 
has  ever  come  to  being  dragged  in  the  mire.  It 
emerged  from  the  unlovely  affair  untarnished. 

To  discuss  Maximilian  Harden’s  crusade  against 
Prince  Eulenburg  is  a  thankless  task  in  a  review  of 
the  men  who  have  made  the  Kaiser’s  reign  notable, 
but  the  review  would  be  incomplete  without  it. 
The  upheaval  caused  by  Harden’s  revelations  was 
the  most  striking  victory  wrought  in  the  name  of 
public  opinion  which  Modern  Germany  has  yet 
witnessed.  Journalism,  which  had  still  to  conquer 
in  the  Fatherland  a  position  commensurate  with 
the  one  it  has  long  commanded  abroad,  was  a  power 
when  the  Moltke-Harden-Eulenburg  trials  were 
ended.  How  much  of  a  power  was  not  recognised 
at  the  time,  nor  is  fully  realised  even  now,  though 

193 


MEN  AROUND  THE  KAISER 


the  “November  crisis”  a  year  later  was  designed 
to  bring  it  vividly  home  to  the  most  reluctant 
circles  of  German  society. 

Vilified  and  ostracised  by  super-patriots  as  an 
outcast,  traitor  and  slanderer,  stoned  by  a  large 
section  of  his  own  colleagues  in  sheer  envy  or  myopic 
conception  of  his  epoch-making  achievement,  Maxi¬ 
milian  Harden  is  to-day  indisputably  the  command¬ 
ing  figure  in  the  field  of  German  polemics.  No 
man  now  writing  in  the  language  of  Goethe  and 
Schiller  has  so  large  a  personal  following,  or  so 
influential  a  voice.  An  incurable  iconoclast,  affecter 
of  stylistic  flourishes  far  above  the  head  of  the 
average  reader,  a  literary  futurist  who  revels  in  the 
staccato  and  the  cryptic,  the  editor  of  the  Zukunft, 
whether  writing  or  talking — he  does  both  equally 
well — is  assured  attentive  hearing  from  countless 
and  sympathetic  ears.  He  has  the  fascination  of 
Horace  Walpole  and  the  sledge  hammer  incisiveness 
of  Cobbett.  He  believes  heads  were  made  to  be  hit. 
If  they  bear  a  crown,  or  wobble  on  the  shoulders 
of  pedantic  Chancellors,  he  hits  them  all  the  harder. 
He  is  a  fierce  patriot,  but  not  a  jingo.  No  publicist, 
past  or  present,  ever  dipped  his  pen  into  the  vitriol 
more  fearlessly.  Shining  marks  are  the  targets  at 
which  he  tilts  most  gleefully.  He  has  served  two 
terms  of  imprisonment  for  what  he  describes  as 
“alleged  lese-majeste,”  and  spent  the  periods  of  his 
incarceration  at  Fortress  Weichselmiinde — six 
months  each — sharpening  his  lance  for  fresh  jousts. 

For  the  purposes  of  this  sketch  I  asked  Harden  to 
194 


MAXIMILIAN  HARDEN 


supply  his  own  version  of  the  episode  with  which 
history  will  chiefly  identify  him.  He  summarises 
it  with  characteristic  lucidity.  “In  the  affair  of 
Eulenburg  and  Company,”  he  says,  “the  gentlemen 
whom  I  have  fought  openly,  and  from  purely  polit¬ 
ical  motives,  tried  to  hold  me  to  the  indefinite  and 
casual  intimations  I  had  made,  and  which  were  then 
intelligible  only  to  themselves.  They  thought  my 
insinuations  incapable  of  substantiation  before  a 
court  of  law.  This  finally  compelled  me,  after 
sparing  them  more  than  enough,  to  come  forward 
with  the  proofs.  I  did  it  reluctantly,  having  warned 
them  often.  The  rest  you  know.” 

It  was  a  distressing  concatenation  of  events  which 
were  to  ensue ;  the  incriminating  articles  in  the 
Zukunft,  hinting  vaguely  at  unspeakable  conditions 
in  the  entourage  of  the  Kaiser;  the  boldness  of 
the  Crown  Prince  in  bringing  them  to  his  father’s 
attention;  the  summary  disappearance  of  Prince 
Philip  zu  Eulenburg — poet,  musician,  diplomat  and 
wirepuller — from  the  circle  of  the  Emperor’s 
intimates;  the  enforced  resignation  of  General 
Count  Kuno  von  Moltke,  Commandant  of  Berlin, 
and  Count  Wilhelm  von  Hohenau,  cousin  and 
aid-de-camp  of  his  Majesty;  Moltke’s  private 
action  against  Harden  for  libel,  with  its  painful 
disclosure  of  moral  laxity  in  the  aristocracy  and 
the  Army ;  Harden’s  acquittal ;  the  succeeding  action 
against  him,  this  time  a  Crown  prosecution,  with 
Harden  in  the  dock,  which  was  to  “vindicate” 
Moltke  and  ended  in  a  gaol  sentence  for  the  editor, 

195 


MEN  AROUND  THE  KAISER 


which  he  has  never  served;  Harden’s  merciless 
revenge  in  the  form  of  proceedings  for  perjury 
against  Eulenburg,  already  a  social  vagrant  and 
physical  wreck;  the  broken  favourite’s  tragic 
appearances  as  a  prisoner  on  a  stretcher,  who  is  still 
under  indictment  and  surveillance  as  an  invalid 
awaiting  trial.  Such  was  the  apparently  endless 
reign  of  terror  in  which  Harden’s  campaign  against 
the  Inner  Round  Table  of  the  Supreme  War  Lord 
engulfed  the  country.  Germans  eradicated  its 
nauseous  memories  from  their  nostrils  as  speedily 
as  possible.  Moltke  and  Hohenau  vanished  as  if 
obliterated.  Where  they  are  even  at  this  hour 
nobody  knows  or  cares.  Eulenburg,  ruined  and 
disgraced,  was  permitted  to  retire  to  his  feudal 
castle  of  Liebenberg,  formerly  the  scene  of  annual 
sojourns  by  the  Kaiser.  Count  Johannes  Lynar, 
another  of  the  clique,  was  cashiered  from  the  Army 
and  sent  to  gaol  for  a  year  and  a  half.  France 
removed  from  her  Embassy  in  Berlin  a  Charge 
d’ Affaires  who  had  been  Eulenburg’s  friend.  The 
camarilla,  which  had  for  a  generation  been  one  of 
the  dominating  forces  in  politics  and  Court  life, 
which  had  helped  to  overthrow  Bismarck,  and  was 
plotting  for  the  downfall  of  Prince  Bulow,  was 
annihilated  beyond  resurrection.  Germany  had 
been  made  to  blush  before  the  world,  but  Harden’s 
work  was  done. 

Harden  had  opportunity  to  ring  all  the  changes  of 
his  versatile  personality  during  his  first  trial.  An 
actor  for  a  brief  period  of  his  callow  days,  he  played 

196 


MAXIMILIAN  HARDEN 


the  part  again  in  those  fateful  days  at  Old  Moabit 
in  the  autumn  of  1907.  Trim,  unafraid,  alert  and 
relentless,  he  practically  conducted  his  own  defence. 
German  legal  practice  permits  a  litigant  wide 
declamatory  latitude.  Harden  smiles  and  bows  to 
acquaintances,  betokening  confidence  and  eagerness 
for  the  fray.  Before  the  trial  is  an  hour  old  he  has 
manoeuvred  its  course  so  that  the  pale  Count  von 
Moltke  seems  the  real  defendant,  cowering  under 
the  lash  of  some  merciless  Public  Prosecutor. 
Harden  enters  his  plea  of  justification.  He  staggers 
the  Court  with  a  forecast  of  the  damning  evidence 
in  his  ammunition-chest.  The  Judge  intervenes, 
as  is  his  duty  under  the  Prussian  code,  to  propose  a 
compromise.  “In  the  interests  of  our  whole 
country,”  he  beseeches  the  editor  to  consent  to  a 
settlement  out  of  court.  Tense,  defiant,  Harden 
rises.  In  accents  of  splendid  disdain  he  snarls  he 
would  rather  go  to  prison  than  recede  or  compound. 
“Between  me  and  that  man,”  he  thunders,  levelling 
an  accusing  finger  at  Moltke,  “there  is  no  possibility 
of  compromise  on  this  earth !”  The  trial  must 
proceed. 

Four  days  it  continues,  a  forensic  struggle  of 
surpassing  bitterness,  with  no  quarter  the  slogan 
of  both  prosecution  and  defence.  No  court  scene 
ever  staged  by  Booth  or  Irving  rivals  it  in  dramatic 
grimness.  Moltke’s  attempts  at  rehabilitation 
crumble  pitiably.  Theatrical  to  the  tips  of  his 
fingers,  Harden,  who  has  thrown  Court  and  nation 
into  hourly  consternation  with  revelations  of 

197. 


MEN  AROUND  THE  KAISER 


State  secrets  come  straight  to  him  “from  above,” 
plays  his  trump  card  last — the  Kaiser’s  own  indict¬ 
ment  of  the  three  figures  whose  names  have  been 
bandied  all  the  week.  “Away  with  Eulenburg, 
away  with  Hohenau  for  ever!  There  is  nothing 
definite  against  Moltke,  but  he  must  remain  on 
half-pay.  Let  him  prove  his  integrity!  Purified 
or  atoned !”  An  impassioned  plea  of  self-defence 
by  the  defendant,  and  the  curtain  falls  on  the  first 
act  of  the  most  harrowing  tragedy  New  Germany 
has  yet  faced.  Then,  two  days  later,  proclamation 
of  Harden’s  acquittal,  and  a  welcome  by  the  popu¬ 
lace  such  as  a  conqueror  might  envy. 

Harden,  who  was  born  and  educated  in  Berlin, 
is  approaching  his  fifty-second  birthday.  Thirst  for 
freedom  and  family  bickerings  drove  him  from 
home  when  a  mere  lad,  to  pursue  for  a  spell  the 
career  of  an  itinerant  actor.  Though  he  decided 
that  histrionics  were  not  his  forte,  his  early  court¬ 
ing  of  the  Muse  saturated  his  whole  being,  for  his 
bearing  and  tactics  always  smack  of  the  footlights. 
After  a  more  or  less  breadless  season  as  literary 
and  dramatic  critic,  he  wrote  his  first  book,  a  series 
of  political  satires,  under  the  pseudonym  of  “Apos- 
tata.”  In  October,  1892  he  issued  the  first  number 
of  Zukunft. 

Harden’s  talents  as  a  pungent  commentator  on 
current  events  attracted  the  attention  of  Bismarck 
about  a  year  after  the  Iron  Chancellor’s  dismissal. 
The  dropped  pilot  invited  the  young  editor  to  visit 
him,  and  until  Bismarck’s  death  he  was  a  frequent 

198 


MAXIMILIAN  HARDEN 


and  welcome  guest  at  Friedrichsruh.  No  living 
man  knows  as  much  of  Bismarck’s  unpublished 
history  as  Harden.  Diagnosticians  of  the  pathology 
of  his  uncompromising  warfare  on  most  of  the 
events  and  institutions  of  the  present  reign  ascribe  it 
to  Harden’s  veneration  for  Bismarck  and  a  vow  to 
avenge  the  ignominious  manner  of  the  empire- 
maker’s  retirement. 

Zukunft,  the  little  weekly  in  which  Harden  pours 
out  his  heart,  has  come  to  be  the  megaphone 
through  which  discontented  Germany  roars.  People 
look  upon  it  as  an  unterrified  tribune  which  will 
expose  shams  and  air  grievances  plausibly  and  forci¬ 
bly.  Information  drifts  to  Harden  in  the  most 
miraculous  fashion,  from  the  lowest  and  the  highest 
in  the  land.  Cabinet  Ministers,  men  of  affairs  and 
plain  sons  of  the  people  come  to  him  with  their 
woes  and  wrongs,  often  with  their  intrigues,  con¬ 
fident  that  his  trenchant  pen  is  the  surest  means  of 
ventilating  the  one  and  righting  the  other.  Zukunft 
has  an  immense  circulation,  and  produces  Harden 
a  handsome  income.  He  is  in  as  great  demand 
as  a  public  speaker  as  his  writings.  During  the 
winter  he  lectures  occasionally  in  Berlin  and  outside, 
and  sometimes  responds  to  calls  from  abroad.  His 
theme  is  always  political.  A  natural  orator,  his 
style  suffers  only  from  staginess.  He  is  fond  of 
breaking  off  in  the  middle  of  a  phrase  or  sentence, 
to  accentuate  the  effect  of  a  statement  or  idea.  His 
lecture  public  is  so  large  that  a  mere  announcement 
of  his  appearance  means  a  sold-out  house  within 

199 


MEN  AROUND  THE  KAISER 


twenty-four  hours.  He  minces  words  on  his  feet 
even  less  than  at  his  writing  desk. 

Harden  closely  resembles  Josef  Kainz,  the  late 
Viennese  tragedian,  in  looks,  mannerisms  and 
stature.  Slight,  though  muscular  of  build,  ascetic 
and  stern,  his  external  appearance  is  not  found 
prepossessing  by  people  who  meet  him  for  the  first 
time.  Their  initial  impression  is  that  of  a  crabbed 
figure  with  an  oblong  head,  crowned  by  a  wealth 
of  curly  dark  hair  fringing  an  intensely  intellectual 
face.  Out  of  it  flash  two  deeply  penetrating  eyes. 
But  Harden  captivates  on  five  minutes’  acquaintance. 
He  proves  to  possess  a  winning  smile,  a  wonderfully 
receptive  mind,  a  temperament  which  is  both  modest 
and  fiery,  and  an  arsenal  of  information  about  the 
great  events,  the  big  men  and  the  undercurrents  of 
German  life.  You  come  away  from  his  picturesque 
villa  in  the  sylvan  Grunewald,  understanding  why 
his  enemies  fear  him,  and  no  longer  wondering  why 
he  counts  powerful  friends  by  the  score. 

You  hear  him  called  a  common  scold  in  Berlin, 
but  Germany  would  be  the  poorer  without  him. 


XXIV 


VON  JAGOW 

FOR  the  fifth  time  within  ten  years  the  man¬ 
agement  of  German  foreign  affairs  has  been 
placed  in  new  hands.  Herr  Gottlieb  von 
Jagow — pronounced  Yah-go — was  summoned  from 
the  Ambassadorship  in  Rome  at  the  beginning  of 
1913  to  become  the  successor  of  the  late  Herr  von 
Kiderlen-Waechter  as  the  nominal  director  of  the 
Fatherland’s  external  relations — nominal,  be  it 
noted,  because  the  fear  is  cherished  that  the  appoint¬ 
ment  of  a  diplomat  of  stereotyped  and  limited  ex¬ 
perience  denotes  a  return  to  the  conditions  under 
which  German  Foreign  Secretaries  were  mere  clerks 
to  more  exalted  superiors.  Forceful  Kiderlen  broke 
with  that  tradition.  Von  Jagow’s  record  and  ante¬ 
cedents,  though  untarnished,  hardly  justify  the 
belief  that  he,  too,  will  insist  upon  being  chief  of 
the  Ausivartiges  Amt  in  more  than  name  only. 

I  have  said  that  Herr  von  Jagow  was 
“summoned”  from  Rome  to  succeed  Kiderlen. 
“Dragged”  is  really  the  word,  for  it  is  an  open  secret 
that  he  came  with  a  reluctance  which  almost  bor¬ 
dered  on  insubordination.  The  German  Foreign 
Secretaryship  is,  without  doubt,  the  least  coveted 

201 


MEN  AROUND  THE  KAISER 

portfolio  in  the  whole  Imperial  Government.  None 
offers  so  brilliant  an  opportunity  to  fail.  None 
is  so  incessantly  in  the  fierce  limelight  of  carping- 
criticism.  It  has  been  the  graveyard  of  more  than 
one  reputation.  Of  no  Minister  of  the  Kaiser  are 
such  herculean  deeds  expected.  On  him  rests  the 
burden  of  gratifying  the  gnawing  ambition  of  Ger¬ 
many  for  a  place  in  the  sun.  Two  Foreign  Secre¬ 
taries  within  a  decade  died  in  harness,  overworked 
and  nerve-shattered.  Will  Von  Jagow  succeed  where 
Von  Richthofen,  Von  Tschirschky,  Von  Schon  and 
Von  Kiderlen-Waechter  failed?  Will  he,  too,  in 
the  pursuit  of  his  country’s  ardent  desire  for  terri¬ 
torial  expansion,  accomplish  nothing  better  than 
the  addition  of  thousands  of  square  miles  of  Congo 
swamp  to  the  Kaiser’s  realms?  Will  he  win  another 
Heligoland  for  the  flag  in  one  of  the  seven  seas — 
in  Walfisch  Bay,  or  on  the  Persian  Gulf?  Will  he 
extend  Germany’s  colonial  frontiers  in  the  Dark 
Continent  till  they  envelop  Portuguese  Africa?  Can 
he  gratify  her  longings  for  a  sphere  of  influence 
to  be  called  Asia  Minor?  Can  he  cajole  America 
into  acquiescence  in  a  German  coaling-station  or 
naval  base  somewhere  in  the  Western  Atlantic? 
These  are  the  questions  his  compatriots,  and  not 
alone  fire-eating  Pan-Germans,  are  asking.  They 
wonder,  with  undisguised  scepticism,  whether  the 
forty-nine  year  old  bachelor,  whose  diplomatic 
career  has  been  confined  to  attache  posts  at  Ham¬ 
burg,  Munich,  The  Hague  and  Luxemburg,  and 
four  years  of  Ambassadorship  in  Rome,  will 

202 


VON  JAGOW 

prove  equal  to  the  task  his  Imperial  master  has  set 
him. 

Von  Jagow  was  indubitably  the  Emperor’s 
personal  choice,  and,  moreover,  his  insistent  choice. 
The  sentimental  in  the  Kaiser’s  kaleidoscopic  make¬ 
up  is  not  the  least  distinguished  of  his  attractive 
traits.  He  has  an  incorrigible  weakness  for  Bonn 
Borussians,  as  the  members  of  the  famous  Rhine 
University’s  historic  and  exclusive  student  Corps 
are  called.  William  II.  is  a  Borussian,  and  his 
new  Foreign  Secretary  is  therefore  his  “brother.” 

From  the  Borussians  the  Kaiser  has  chosen  his 
best  friend,  Prince  Fiirstenberg.  With  a  Kaiser, 
Foreign  Secretary  and  Man-behind-the-Throne  who 
•are  all  old  boys  of  Borussia,  the  Bonn  Corps  may 
•be  said  to  be  in  partial  command  of  the  ship 
of  State.  A  dozen  other  high  officers  of  Govern¬ 
ment  owe  their  eminence,  among  other  qualities, 
to  the  fact  that  they  are  entitled  to  wear  the 
peaked  Stiirmer  and  black-white  ribbon  of  the 
Corps.  At  the  opening  of  an  exhibition  in  Berlin 
this  spring  the  Kaiser  was  observed  conversing 
familiarly  with  a  somewhat  diminutive  figure  of  a 
man,  whom  nobody  recognised,  but  whom  His 
Majesty  addressed  in  the  form  of  Du  (thou),  in 
Germany  the  highwater  mark  of  intimacy  and  affec¬ 
tion.  It  was  Von  Jagow,  the  Corpsbrudcr  of  Bonn, 
whom  his  Imperial  college  “chum”  had  just  made 
German  Foreign  Secretary. 

The  Kaiser  was  so  anxious  that  Herr  von  Jagow 
should  take  up  the  reins  in  the  Wilhelmstrasse,  that 

203 


MEN  AROUND  THE  KAISER 


he  even  induced  the  diplomat  to  renounce  objections 
to  North  Germany  as  an  abode  for  unrobust  con¬ 
stitutions,  and  exchange  the  salubrious  atmosphere 
of  Rome  for  the  climatic  caprices  of  Berlin.  So 
the  newest  maker  of  history  in  the  rambling  shack 
of  a  building  which  still  does  service  as  Germany’s 
Foreign  Office  at  least  starts  out  on  what  Baron 
Marschall  would  have  called  a  “steep  and  stony 
path,”  in  a  fine  spirit  of  loyalty  to  his  sovereign. 
For  the  rest,  his  deeds  must  tell. 

Herr  von  Jagow  is  the  diametrical  antithesis 
in  physique  and  temperament  of  his  blunt  and  ag¬ 
gressive  predecessor.  Kiderlen  was  big  and  girthy. 
Jagow  is  slight  and  attenuated.  A  description 
which  doubtless  does  him  injustice  pictures  him  as 
misanthropic.  Kiderlen’s  characteristic  note,  apart 
from  bluffness,  was  bubbling  good  nature.  He 
had  a  splendid  disregard  of  the  little  niceties  on 
which  the  professional  diplomat  lays  stress.  Jagow 
has  a  distinct  predilection  for  such  proprieties, 
coupled  with  natural  charm  which  promptly  in¬ 
troduced  a  new  atmosphere  into  the  Ambassadorial 
reception-room  at  Wilhelmstrasse  76.  He  feels  a 
bit  strange  and  nervous  in  his  fresh  surroundings. 
He  has  a  habit  of  glancing  about  him  furtively,  as 
if  not  quite  sure  of  his  ground.  He  is  punctiliously 
well-dressed,  and  is  most  at  home,  one  gathers,  in 
the  drawing-room  or  at  the  dinner  table.  He  is  a 
book-lover  and  has  a  cultivated  artistic  taste.  If  he 
has  inherited  ancestral  virtues,  he  should  prove  a 
statesman.  Many  of  his  forbears  have  played  emi- 

204 


VON  JAGOW 

nent  roles  in  Prussian  political  history,  especially 
in  their  native  Mark  of  Brandenburg.  In  the 
Avenue  of  Victory,  that  sepulchral  open-air  Wal- 
halla  which  the  Kaiser  has  hewn  through  the  Tier- 
garten  for  the  inculcation  of  patriotism,  and  to  the 
horror  of  sculpture  connoisseurs,  is  a  bust  of  a  Von 
Jagow  flanking  the  statue  of  one  of  the  electors 
whom  he  served.  The  new  Foreign  Secretary  is 
following  in  the  footsteps  of  his  progenitors  in  be¬ 
coming  a  paladin  of  the  Crown. 

Von  Jagow  has  been  in  the  diplomatic  service 
seventeen  years,  but  only  the  Ambassadorship  at 
Rome,  which  he  occupied  for  four  years,  gives  a 
line  on  his  capacities.  He  represented  Germany  in 
Italy  at  a  delicate  period.  Austria-Hungary  and 
Italy,  the  Fatherland’s  partners  in  the  Triple 
Alliance,  have  for  years  been  on  cat-and-dog  terms. 
A  political  divorce  court  would  long  ago  have  sev¬ 
ered  the  union  between  Vienna  and  Rome  on 
grounds  of  incompatibility.  Berlin  itself  thinks 
Rome  could  easily  be  convicted  of  infidelity  because 
of  what  Prince  Buelow  used  to  call  her  fondness 
for  extra  dances  with  France  and  England.  Von 
Jagow’s  mission  was  to  act  the  part  of  mediator 
between  the  “allies,”  one  of  whom  owns,  the  other 
covets,  Trieste.  The  Triple  Alliance  was  expiring 
in  two  or  three  years,  and  Austrian-Italian  differ¬ 
ences  needed  to  be  smoothed  over,  if  not  composed, 
if  the  pact  were  to  be  worth  rewriting.  It  has  al¬ 
ready  been  formally  announced,  far  in  advance  of 
the  expiration  date,  that  the  Dreibund  is  to  be  pro- 

205 


MEN  AROUND  THE  KAISER 


longed  for  another  term  of  years.  Von  Jagow  un¬ 
doubtedly  did  his  full  share  to  bring  about  an 
atmosphere  in  Rome  which  made  it  possible  for  the 
Marquis  di  San  Giuliano  to  declare,  in  tones  which 
did  not  lack  sincerity,  a  few  days  ago,  that  the 
Triple  Alliance  was  still  the  keystone  of  Italian 
foreign  policy. 

The  Turco-Italian  War  made  another  call  for 
consummate  tact  and  diplomatic  skill  on  the  part 
of  Germany’s  representative  at  Rome.  Jagow’s 
detractors  at  Berlin — every  German  Ambassador 
has  armchair  critics  at  home  who  would  do  things 
infinitely  better — blamed  him  for  not  anticipating 
the  outbreak  of  hostilities  in  Tripoli,  and  in  not 
inducing  Germany’s  ally  to  spare  the  susceptibilities 
and  respect  the  territory  of  Germany’s  friend. 
German  public  sentiment  was  almost  unreservedly 
on  the  side  of  the  Turks.  Even  in  official  estimation, 
there  is  reason  to  believe,  Italy’s  war  in  North 
Africa  savoured,  both  in  conception  and  execution, 
of  a  freebooting  expedition.  Italians  realised  that 
Germany  was  on  the  side  of  their  enemy.  That 
Jagow  nevertheless  kept  his  country’s  diplomatic 
prestige  at  a  high  point  during  that  strained  time 
may  be  regarded  evidence  of  ability  of  no  mean 
degree. 

But  Herr  von  Jagow  will  be  judged  by  what  he 
will  accomplish — not  by  what  he  has  hitherto  done 
or  failed  to  do.  His  field  of  usefulness  is  world¬ 
wide,  for  the  sun  never  sets  on  what  the  German 
Empire  would  like  to  be.  His  subordinates  and 

206 


VON  JAGOW 

colleagues  at  the  Foreign  Office,  who  have  known 
of  his  previous  career  from  the  inside,  bespeak  for 
him  a  first-rate  future.  He  does  not  look  as  if  there 
were  a  Bismarck  within  him,  but  he  has  all  the  vir¬ 
tues  which  count  in  modern  diplomacy — urbanity, 
industry  and  loyalty.  His  first  public  utterances 
have  appropriately  concerned  Germany’s  paramount 
foreign  issue — relations  with  England.  He  has 
told  the  Reichstag  that  matters  with  Britain  are 
taking  a  more  than  ordinarily  friendly  course. 
He  described  them  as  “a  delicate  flower,”  whose 
growth  ought  not  to  be  hampered  by  premature 
touching.  Von  Jagow  himself  is  a  paragon  of 
conciliation.  Externally  he  seems  almost  inoffen¬ 
sive.  The  mailed  fist  having  failed  grievously  to 
make  John  Bull  and  Michel  lie  down  together,  there 
are  surface  indications  that  the  velvet  glove  is  now 
to  be  tried.  That  is  the  only  sort  of  gauntlet,  one 
imagines,  into  which  the  new  German  Foreign 
Secretary’s  hand  will  ever  fit.  But  you  never  can 
tell.  Kiderlen  came  in  like  a  lion  and  went  out 
like  a  lamb.  Perhaps  Jagow  will  reverse  the  order. 


XXV 


VON  DER  GOLTZ 

GERMANY  is  spending  $262,500,000  on  in¬ 
creasing  the  striking  force  of  her  Army. 
The  bulk  of  this  vast  new  tribute  to  the 
Moloch  of  militarism  is  to  be  devoted  to  strength¬ 
ening  the  position  in  the  East.  The  Kaiser’s  “year 
of  sacrifice”  has  in  mind  the  struggle  which  Ger¬ 
mans  religiously  believe  to  be  inevitable — the 
supreme  clash  which  is  to  decide  forever  whether 
German  or  Slav  is  to  prevail  in  Europe.  Reduced 
to  naked  essentials,  the  paramount  necessity,  in 
Teuton  estimation,  is  the  immediate  consolidation 
of  the  military  resources  of  Germany  and  Austria- 
Hungary  for  war  against  the  allied  armies  of  Russia, 
France,  Bulgaria,  Greece,  Servia  and  Montenegro. 
Before  the  rise  of  the  youngest  Great  Power,  the 
Balkan  Confederation,  Austria  was  relied  upon  to 
lend  Germany  such  help  in  a  war  against  Russia 
that  the  mass  of  the  Kaiser’s  Army  would  be  free 
for  operations  in  Western  Europe.  But  events  have 
so  radically  altered  the  balance  of  power  in  South- 
Eastern  Europe  that  Austria’s  military  worth  to 
her  German  ally,  it  is  asserted,  has  been  reduced 
by  at  least  40  per  cent.  Germany  expects  now  to 

208 


4 


VON  DER  GOLTZ 


have  to  deal  with  Russia  and  France  almost  single- 
handed. 

If  Deutschtum  and  Slaventum  were  to  come  to 
grips  to-morrow,  Germany’s  main  armies  operating 
against  Russia  would  in  all  probability  be  com¬ 
manded  by  Field-Marshal  General  Baron  von  der 
Goltz.  It  will  no  doubt  strike  the  non-German 
reader  as  incredible  that  the  organiser  of  the  worst- 
beaten  army  in  modern  history  is  looked  upon  as 
a  prospective  German  generalissimo.  Kirk  Kilisse 
and  Lule  Burgas  are  assumed  abroad  to  have  buried 
Goltz  Pasha’s  reputation.  Many  of  the  slanderous 
anonymous  postcards  addressed  to  him  during  and 
since  the  Balkan  War  indicate  that  some  of  his  own 
countrymen  are  of  the  same  mind.  But  there  is 
reason  to  believe  that  a  different  opinion  prevails 
at  the  German  General  Staff.  Von  der  Goltz 
remains  Inspector-General  of  the  Second  Army 
Inspection.  The  Guards,  the  flower  of  the  Army, 
have  just  been  added  to  his  Inspection.  William  II. 
is  not  the  man  to  tolerate  the  retention  of  a  dis¬ 
credited  soldier  in  so  vital  a  position,  especially  bluff, 
outspoken  Goltz,  who  is  not  a  personal  favourite  of 
the  Supreme  War  Lord.  •  Goltz  Pasha — the  title 
of  which  he  is  still  proud — will  lead  the  Germans 
across  the  Vistula,  as  they  believe  they  eventually 
will  be  led,  because  he  is  almost  universally  con¬ 
sidered  the  Fatherland’s  greatest  living  soldier. 

Field-Marshal  von  der  Goltz’  reputation  as  an 
organiser  rests  in  his  own  country  on  his  work  as 
general  of  the  First  Army  Corps — the  Russian 
209 


MEN  AROUND  THE  KAISER 


border  legions — at  Konigsberg,  which  he  com¬ 
manded  between  1902  and  1907.  The  assignment 
to  the  command  of  the  corps  of  his  native  East 
Prussia  Avas  particularly  agreeable  to  him  and  to  the 
material  with  which  he  had  to  work.  Just  Avhat 
Goltz  accomplished  in  his  district  is  the  well-kept 
secret  of  the  Staff  at  Berlin;  but  it  is  known  to  have 
been  of  a  superlatively  effective  character.  He  is 
distinctly  a  soldier  of  imagination  and  initiative,  and 
the  peasant-farmers  of  East  Prussia  could  unfold, 
if  they  dared,  a  scheme  of  defensive  arrangements 
mapped  out  by  Goltz,  the  originality  and  scope  of 
which,  they  say,  are  destined  some  day  to  open  the 
eyes  of  both  friend  and  foe.  At  Konigsberg  Goltz 
had  full  play  for  his  tactical  genius.  He  devoted 
his  energies  to  developing  the  strategic  training  of 
the  First  Corps,  which  will  be  called  upon  to  bear  the 
brunt  of  the  early  fighting  with  Russia.  He  incul¬ 
cated  relentlessly  in  officers  and  troops  the  doctrine 
that  soldiering  is  all  work  and  no  play,  and  himself 
served  as  a  tireless  example  of  the  theory.  His 
critiques  of  manoeuvres  were  extraordinarily  instruc¬ 
tive.  New  points  of  view  Avere  constantly  being 
revealed  by  him.  An  officer  who  served  in  Goltz’ 
corps  was  looked  upon  as  having  studied  the  arts 
of  war  at  the  fountain-head. 

Goltz  is  seventy  years  old,  and  has  been  writing, 
fighting  and  Avorking  for  more  than  fifty  years  of 
the  time.  Another  great  German  soldier  who  is 
still  living,  Field-Marshal  Count  von  Haseler,  is 
described  by  Goltz  as  his  model  of  the  workingman- 

2IQ 


VON  DER  GOLTZ 


soldier.  Haseler,  who  was  pounding  the  Sixteenth 
Army  Corps  on  the  French  frontier  into  invincibility 
about  the  same  time  Goltz  was  hammering  his  East 
Prussians  into  shape,  was  Goltz’  superior  at  the 
headquarters  of  Prince  Frederick  Karl  during  the 
Franco-Prussian  War.  “Well,”  ran  Haseler’s  greet¬ 
ing  to  the  young  officer,  “you’ll  at  least  learn 
here  what  men  and  horses  can  do,  and  it  won’t 
do  you  any  harm.”  At  the  headquarters  of  the 
Red  Prince,  Goltz  had  expected  to  move  in  a 
paradise  of  magnificent  strategic  operations. 
“Not  until  later,”  he  has  written,  “did  I  come  to 
understand  how  much  more  important  it  is  in  war 
than  all  theories,  to  recognise  what  men  and  horses 
are  capable  of  accomplishing.  I  had  the  notion 
that  if  an  officer  had  done  four  hours’  service  in  the 
forenoon  and  two  or  three  hours  in  the  afternoon, 
he  had  a  legitimate  right  to  seek  diversion.  I  soon 
found  myself  asking  when  Count  Haseler  rested, 
ate  and  drank,  not  to  mention  diversion  or  pleasure, 
and  I  began  to  realise  that  a  soldier  has  only  done 
his  duty  when  at  any  given  moment  he  cannot  find 
a  single  thing  to  do — which  is  seldom  the  case.” 
Goltz  confesses  that  the  thoroughness  and  Spartan 
simplicity  of  Plaseler,  his  uncompromising  frank¬ 
ness,  his  almost  unnatural  contempt  of  difficulties 
and  exertion,  “gave  my  whole  military  life  a  dif¬ 
ferent  direction  than  it  would  otherwise  have 
taken.” 

Field-Marshal  von  der  Goltz’  fame  would  be 
secure  if  he  had  never  done  anything  but  write. 

21 1 


MEN  AROUND  THE  KAISER 


He  revealed  literary  talent  during  precocious  days 
as  a  cadet  at  Gross-Lichterfelde,  romance  then 
being  his  forte.  His  first  books  were  novels,  which 
he  sold  to  help  support  his  widowed  mother.  Goltz’ 
initial  work  of  an  important  character,  “Leon 
Gambetta  and  His  Armies,”  brought  him  both  fame 
and  trouble.  It  espoused  the  reduction  of  Germany’s 
three-year  period  of  military  service  to  two  years, 
a  reform  earnestly  advocated  by  the  Liberal  and 
Socialist  parties.  Von  der  Goltz  was  suspected  of 
“radicalism”  unbecoming  an  officer  wearing  the 
King’s  coat.  By  way  of  disciplinary  punishment 
he  was  transferred  to  a  line-captaincy  at  Gera. 
The  Gambetta  book,  published  in  1877,  aroused 
national  attention.  Pilloried  as  heresy  bordering 
on  insubordination,  it  paved  the  way  for  the 
adoption  of  two-year  service  sixteen  years  later. 

Goltz’  best-known  literary  production,  “A  Nation 
in  Arms,”  appeared  in  1883.  It  is  a  brilliant  and 
unanswerable  apotheosis  of  obligatory  military  duty. 
Englishmen  who  hesitate  to  identify  themselves 
with  Lord  Roberts’  crusade  for  National  Service 
will  find  food  for  grave  reflection  in  “A  Nation 
in  Arms,”  and  a  wealth  of  argument  applicable  to 
Britain’s  present-day  ignominious  military  position. 
The  book  has  been  translated  into  a  dozen  languages 
and  has  helped  many  a  Government  to  over¬ 
come  opposition  to  the  citizen-army  theory. 
Recently  Von  der  Goltz  was  placed  at  the  head  of 
the  “Young  Germany  League,”  a  new  movement 
designed  primarily  to  counteract  the  anti-militaristic 

212 


VON  DER  GOLTZ 


propaganda  of  the  Social  Democracy.  His  selection 
was  a  recognition  of  the  fact  that  he  incorporates, 
as  no  other  living  German,  the  idea  of  compulsory 
service  for  national  defence.  “Campaigns  of 
Frederick  the  Great,”  “Army  Leadership,”  and 
“The  War  History  of  Germany  in  the  Nineteenth 
Century,”  are  Goltz’  best-known  subsequent  works. 
In  the  last-named  he  reveals  himself  a  confirmed 
apostle  of  the  theory  that  arms  and  war  are  the  sole 
source  of  German  greatness.  “Through  the  sharp¬ 
ness  of  our  sword,”  he  declares,  “not  through  the 
sharpness  of  our  mind,  was  the  dream  of  all  Ger¬ 
mans  finally  realised.  Our  material  development  is 
taking  place  on  so  rapid  a  scale  that  it  must  cause 
misgivings,  for  it  increases  the  sense  of  security  and 
lust  for  enjoyment.  Both  have  invariably  proved 
perilous  to  a  nation.  Only  so  long  as  the  cultivation 
of  the  warlike  spirit  keeps  pace  with  general  cultured 
development  has  a  nation  been  able  to  maintain  its 
place  in  history.”  All  of  Goltz’  writings  are  marked 
by  a  picturesqueness  and  lucidity  which  stamp  him 
a  master  of  literary  style. 

Though  a  believer  in  strong  armaments,  Goltz 
does  not  agree  with  Napoleon  that  God  fights  on 
the  side  of  the  biggest  battalions.  He  would  rather 
lead  a  single  regiment  of  efficients  into  battle  than 
a  corps  of  mediocrities.  He  is  not  a  victim  of  rage 
des  nombrcs. 

Goltz  was  summoned  to  reconstruct  Sultan  Abdul 
Hamid’s  military  establishment  in  1883.  He 
remained  in  Turkey  until  1895.  He  found  the 
213 


MEN  AROUND  THE  KAISER 

Ottoman  troops  a  disjointed  body  of  raw  fighting 
men  and  turned  them  into  an  army.  When  one 
hears  of  the  incessant  opposition,  intrigues  and 
suspicion  which  dogged  Goltz’  footsteps  from  the 
hour  of  his  arrival  in  Constantinople,  one  wonders 
that  he  accomplished,  even  at  the  end  of  twelve 
years  of  patient  effort,  as  much  as  he  did.  Abdul 
Hamid  surrounded  him  with  spies,  who  blocked  him 
at  every  stage.  Goltz  once  succeeded  in  extorting 
permission  from  the  Sultan  to  hold  manoeuvres 
faintly  resembling  war.  They  were  prohibited  at 
the  eleventh  hour  because  the  minions  of  the  Caliph 
had  made  his  Majesty  believe  that  a  conspiracy 
against  the  throne  was  the  real  object  of  the  opera¬ 
tions.  The  nerve-wracked  and  superstitious  auto¬ 
crat  never  allowed  ball-cartridge  to  be  fired  by  his 
troops.  His  artillery  was  not  once  permitted  to 
practice  with  ammunition.  Mauser  rifles  bought 
in  Germany  lay  unpacked  at  Constantinople  for  six 
years.  Those  were  typical  of  the  conditions  under 
which  Goltz  worked.  Yet,  by  dint  of  herculean 
labour  and  consummate  patience,  he  left  Turkey  in 
possession  of  an  organisation  worthy  of  the  name  of 
an  army,  with  a  cohesive  staff  and  inspection  system, 
with  a  reserve,  Landwehr  and  Landsturm,  with  a 
military  school,  with  a  topographical  archive  and 
with  a  comprehensive  recruiting  scheme.  He 
rearmed  the  infantry  and  artillery,  and  worked  out 
plans  of  campaign  for  every  contingency  except 
war  against  Montenegro.  In  1909,  after  the  Revo¬ 
lution  had  enthroned  the  Young  Turks,  they  invited 

214 


VON  DER  GOLTZ 


Von  der  Goltz  to  return  to  Turkey  and  reorganise 
the  new  army,  but  he  declined.  In  1910  he  spent 
two  months  among  his  former  pupils,  and  came 
away  with  the  impression  that  Turkish  military 
destinies  were  now  in  competent  hands.  In  the 
events  of  the  autumn  of  1912,  he  was  doomed  to  be 
bitterly  disappointed. 

Turkey’s  disasters  have  been  called  Germany’s 
defeats,  with  little  actual  basis  of  fact  or  reason, 
as  unprejudiced  observers  now  agree.  The  troops 
which  crumbled  before  the  gallant  legions  of  Bul¬ 
garia,  Servia,  Greece  and  Montenegro  were  not  the 
army  which  Goltz  trained  and  organised.  They 
were  an  unready,  underfed  and  demoralised  rabble. 
An  army  into  whose  marrow  German  teachers  for 
thirty  years  had  drilled  offensive  as  the  first  and 
last  law  of  war  threw  that  dogma  to  the  winds  and 
remained  stubbornly  on  an  impotent  and  wretched 
defensive.  It  was  not  Goltz  who  taught  Turkish 
artillery  to  mount  their  guns  on  the  sky-line,  of 
which  even  a  near-sighted  enemy  might  find  the 
range.  Bulgarian  officers  tell  of  an  engagement 
wherein  there  was  one  Turkish  position  which  had 
a  concealed  battery.  It  was  in  command  of  German 
officers  and  it  was  not  dislodged.  Sixty  German 
officers  participated  in  the  gallant  defence  of 
Adrianople,  and  it  is  safe  to  assume  their  role 
was  not  a  passive  one.  It  seems  as  unfair  to 
charge  Goltz  and  German  training  with  the  miserable 
fiasco  of  the  Turkish  Army  as  it  would  be  to  blame 
Admiral  Gamble  and  British  training  for  the  sorry 

215 


MEN  AROUND  THE  KAISER 


showing  of  the  Turkish  Fleet,  or  French  training  for 
the  fact  that  the  war  was  lost  under  Nazim  Pasha, 
who  studied  at  St.  Cyr.  Committee  politics,  Kismet 
and  degeneracy  were  the  elements  which  combined 
to  conquer  the  Turk.  Von  der  Goltz  himself  has 
not  abandoned  faith  in  the  inborn  military  virtues 
of  Islam.  He  calls  the  resistance  of  Adrianople, 
Scutari,  Tchatalja  and  Janina  glorious,  and  declares 
it  shows  that  the  blood  of  the  men  of  Plevna, 
despite  Kirk  Kilisse,  Lule  Burgas  and  Kumanowa, 
still  flows  in  Turkish  veins. 

Germany  and  the  Kaiser  have  showered  their 
richest  honours  on  the  bespectacled  soldier  who 
looks  more  like  a  schoolmaster  than  a  general.  From 
his  rank  of  junior  lieutenant  in  the  Austrian  cam¬ 
paign  of  1866,  in  which  he  had  his  left  shoulder 
smashed  by  shell  fire,  Goltz  has  risen  to  the  dignity 
of  the  ranking  Field-Marshal  of  Prussia  and  a 
Knight  of  the  Black  Eagle.  He  traces  his  ancestral 
line  to  a  Goltz  who  was  ennobled  and  made  a  Mar¬ 
shal  of  France  by  Louis  XIV.  A  man  of  gentlest 
exterior,  he  has  a  heart  of  oak  and  an  iron  will  which 
is  respecter  of  neither  rank,  precedent  nor  tradition. 
His  speciality  is  stiff-neckedness  to  superiors  and 
kind-heartedness  to  subordinates.  He  cares  nothing 
whatever  for  the  dress-parade  atmosphere  of  his 
caste.  His  military  rank  requires  his  presence  at 
Court  on  spectacular  occasions  of  State,  when  one  of 
his  privileges  is  to  carry  the  Supreme  War  Lord’s 
sword.  He  looks  upon  such  a  function  more  as  a 
bore  than  a  prerogative,  and  refers  to  the  decorative 
216 


VON  DER  GOLTZ 

figure  one  cuts  on  such  occasions  as  that  of  an 
oleander. 

Germany’s  new  Army  Bill,  which  is  designed 
primarily  to  strengthen  her  military  independence, 
interprets  what  Von  der  Goltz  regards  the  basis  of 
all  true  schemes  of  national  defence.  He  believes 
the  Fatherland  must  be  armed  for  war  on  all 
fronts.  He  does  not  think  any  country  ought  ever 
to  depend  on  anything  but  its  own  resources.  It 
would  be  fatuous  to  contend  that  Von  der  Goltz’ 
professional  star  is  as  irresistibly  in  the  ascendant 
as  it  was  before  the  Balkan  War.  It  is  not. 
The  myth  of  the  invincibility  of  German  training 
has  unquestionably  received  a  staggering  blow.  But 
it  is  a  woefully  misguided  foreign  General  Staff 
which  imagines  that  Germany  can  be  rolled  up  as 
Turkey  was.  Armageddon,  no  matter  on  whose 
banners  victory  eventually  perches,  will  tell  a 
different  story. 


XXVI 


GERHART  HAUPTMANN 

AMONG  the  good  wishes  all  Germany  ex¬ 
tended  to  Gerhart  Hauptmann  on  his 
fiftieth  birthday  in  November,  1912,  a  hope 
which  found  frequent  and  fervent  expression  was 
that  he  would  take  a  long  rest  before  putting  hand 
to  fresh  literary  effort.  Nothing  cynical  or  ironical 
was  father  to  the  thought.  In  twenty-three  years 
Hauptmann  had  turned  out  exactly  twenty-four 
plays  and  novels.  The  last  ten  of  them,  covering 
a  period  of  as  many  years,  were  all  failures.  The 
producer  of  The  Weavers  and  The  Sunken  Bell 
seemed  to  have  lost  his  creative  cunning.  His  ad¬ 
mirers  besought  him  to  undergo  a  period  of  pro¬ 
longed  intellectual  convalescence  lest  the  decadence 
into  which  they  considered  him  to  have  fallen  be¬ 
came  chronic.  Many  attribute  his  gluttony  for 
work,  as  well  as  the  decay  of  his  genius,  to  the  semi- 
luxurious  life  he  has  affected  in  recent  years,  and  to 
the  commendable  desire  to  finance  it  out  of  revenue. 
By  such  diagnosticians  of  Hauptmann’s  latter-day 
powerlessness  the  bestowal  of  the  Nobel  Prize  for 
Literature  on  his  fiftieth  anniversary  is  looked 
upon  as  almost  providential.  They  cherish  the  hope 
that  he  may  now  find  it  meet  to  slow  down  his 

218 


GERHART  HAUPTMANN 


overworked  mental  machinery  until  he  is  able  to 
give  again  of  his  old-time  self.  His  “Complete 
Works” — poems,  social  plays,  novels  and  tales — 
were  recently  published  in  six  stately  volumes.  His 
wellwishers  devoutly  trust  that  it  will  be  at  least 
a  decade  before  another  can  be  added  to  the 
collection. 

Hauptmann,  despite  the  fact  that  his  fame  at  the 
moment  is  more  stationary  than  in  the  ascendant, 
is  by  almost  universal  consent  the  most  gifted  poet 
and  dramatist  now  writing  in  the  German  language. 
Sudermann  and  Wedekind,  and  Schonherr,  Schnitz- 
ler  and  Bahr,  the  leaders  of  the  Austrian  School,  all 
have  their  worshippers,  but  the  Silesian  bard,  the 
revolutionary  of  the  productive  ’nineties,  the  real 
Hauptmann,  ranks  as  the  most  German,  the  noblest 
of  them  all.  Nothing  has  altered  his  compatriots’ 
belief  that  the  eras  of  German  literature  which 
deserve  to  be  recorded  as  epochs  are  still  denoted  by 
Schiller,  Goethe,  Grillparzer,  Hebbel  and  Haupt¬ 
mann.  We  live  in  a  material  age,  when  literary 
successes  are  appraised  in  terms  of  vogue.  Measured 
by  that  standard,  Hauptmann  stands  high  among 
the  “best  sellers”  of  all  countries.  The  Sunken 
Bell  has  reached  its  eightieth  German  edition — 
German  editions  sometimes  run  to  two  thousand  or 
three  thousand  copies ;  of  translations  in  English, 
French,  Russian  and  Italian  no  figures  are  available. 
The  Weavers  has  gone  to  forty-three  German 
editions,  and  Hannele  and  Poor  Henry  have  each 
attained  a  twenty-third  edition. 

219 


MEN  AROUND  THE  KAISER 

In  an  autobiographical  sketch  a  few  years  ago, 
Hauptmann,  dwelling  on  the  accusation  that  he  was 
not  a  playwright,  replied:  “If  I  have  not  the 
qualities  of  the  dramatist,  I  have  at  any  rate  his 
weaknesses,  and  one  of  them  is  the  inability  to  let 
any  single  voice  speak  from  the  many-voicedness  of 
my  spirit,  even  if  the  voice  be  my  own!  As  it  is 
to-day,  so  it  has  always  been.  In  the  depth  of  my 
being  many  voices  have  always  clamoured  for  a 
hearing,  and  I  saw  no  other  possibility  of  bringing 
a  semblance  of  order  out  of  chaos  except  in  the  form 
of  verse  and  prose,  which  spoke  many  sentiments — 
in  other  words,  to  write  drama.  I  shall  have  to 
continue  doing  this,  as  it  has  been  my  highest 
spiritual  form  of  life  and  expression  of  personality.’’ 

The  “many-voicedness”  of  Hauptmann’s  soul 
turned  his  early  life  into  that  of  a  rolling  stone.  He 
was  twenty-six  before  he  found  himself — a  period 
extraordinarily  late  in  Germany,  where  youths 
select  their  careers  long  before  attaining  manhood. 
I  have  known  Gymnasiasten  of  sixteen  who  spent 
sleepless  nights  of  indecision  as  to  whether  the 
Church,  the  law  or  the  State  had  prior  claims  on 
their  budding  talents.  Hauptmann  tried  his  hand 
at  many  things  before  the  right  one  manifested 
itself.  Born  in  1862,  the  son  of  an  innkeeper  at  the 
little  Silesian  watering-place  of  Salzbrunn,  he  was 
notoriously  backward  in  his  lessons  at  the  primary 
schools,  and  his  father  sent  him  to  Breslau,  the 
capital  of  the  province,  in  the  hope  that  a  Gymna¬ 
sium  education  would  drag  him  out  of  his  dreams 

220 


GERHART  HAUPTMANN 


and  make  him  study  and  learn  like  other  boys.  But 
he  seemed  predestined  to  remain  at  the  foot  of  his 
classes,  and  left  Gymnasium  without  passing  into 
the  higher  form.  He  was  sickly  besides,  and 
developed  symptoms  of y  consumption.  Then  his 
parents  sent  him  to  relatives  who  were  farmers, 
hoping  that  life  in  the  open  would  put  fresh  air  into 
his  lungs  and  ambition  for  a  useful  career  into  his 
heart,  but  farming  did  not  appeal  to  him,  and  he 
soon  wended  his  way  back  to  Breslau,  this  time  to 
try  his  hand  at  sculpture  in  the  local  school  of  art. 
He  was  a  wilful  pupil,  who  had  often  to  be  sus¬ 
pended  for  insubordination,  and  in  1882,  a  stripling 
of  twenty,  he  left  the  institution,  with  failure  again 
written  across  his  papers. 

The  zeal  to  write  creatively  was  already  burning 
fiercely  within  young  Hauptmann.  He  had  per¬ 
petrated  considerable  poetry  of  a  highly  idealistic 
colour  in  his  callowest  youth,  including  drama  in 
blank-verse  and  an  epic  poem.  Now,  together  with 
his  brother  Karl,  who  was  also  to  become  a  dram¬ 
atist  of  some  note,  Hauptmann  wandered  to  Jena, 
where  the  brothers  put  in  a  desultory  year  dabbling 
in  philosophy  and  natural  science  at  the  feet  of 
Haeckel.  Then  the  two  companions  in  restlessness 
went  to  Hamburg,  where  an  elder  brother  was  in 
business,  thence  to  wend  their  aimless  way  to  Spain 
and  the  Mediterranean,  ending  up  with  a  visit  to 
Italy  and  a  prolonged  sojourn  in  Rome.  Here  Ger¬ 
hart  tarried  alone,  to  dedicate  himself  once  more  to 
sculpture.  In  1885,  now  married,  he  moved  to  Ber- 

221 


MEN  AROUND  THE  KAISER 


lin,  where  intimate  association  with  the  stormy 
petrels  of  the  revolutionary  era  dawning  in  German 
literature  finally  landed  him  in  the  sphere  which 
was  at  length  to  prove  his  long-sought  natural 
element. 

In  1889,  mainly  under  the  inspiration  of  the  path- 
breaker,  Arno  Holz,  Hauptmann  blossomed  forth 
as  the  bright  particular  star  of  the  new  school  of 
literary  thought,  whose  gods  were  Ibsen,  Tolstoi 
and  Zola,  and  which  was  to  pave  the  way  for 
realism  and  naturalism  in  German  dramatic  art,  as 
Richard  Strauss  and  Max  Liebermann  were  pre¬ 
paring  to  do  in  music  and  painting.  Hauptmann 
became  identified  with  “The  Free  Stage,”  a  society 
founded  by  the  literary  Secessionists,  and  in  Octo¬ 
ber,  1889,  under  its  auspices,  his  first  serious  the¬ 
atrical  work,  Before  Sunrise ,  saw  the  light  of  day. 
A  movingly  terrible  problem  play  dealing  with  social 
conditions  in  the  author’s  own  native  Silesia, 
Hauptmann’s  relentless  indictment  of  provincial 
German  life,  with  its  sordid  atmosphere  of  greed, 
inebriety  and  licentiousness,  was  naturalism  in  the 
n-th  degree.  “A  picture  of  hell  itself  would  have 
paled  by  the  side  of  it ;  Zola  and  Tolstoi  would  have 
had  to  confess  ‘He  can  do  better  than  we,’  ”  was 
the  comment  of  the  novelist,  Friedrich  Spielhagen, 
on  witnessing  Before  Sunrise.  The  premiere  at  the 
Lessing  Theater  was  a  veritable  Donnybrook  melee 
between  the  stalwarts  of  the  old  school  and 
the  revolutionaries.  Heads  were  broken,  faces 
scratched,  and  much  hair  pulled,  but  a  fresh  era 

222 


GERHART  HAUPTMANN 


in  German  dramatic  production  was  irrevocably 
inaugurated. 

Four  years  later  Hauptmann  produced  his  great 
labour  epic,  The  Weavers ,  again  under  the  auspices 
of  the  Free  Stage,  but  it  was  not  until  eighteen 
months  afterwards  that  the  piece  was  released  by  the 
Censor  for  public  performance.  The  Weavers,  a 
frankly  revolutionary  tragedy  of  toil,  created  a 
deserved  sensation.  It  assaulted  the  ramparts  of  the 
industrial  system  with  sixteen-inch  guns  and 
stamped  Hauptmann  for  all  time  as  a  dramatist  of 
consummate  power.  His  paternal  grandfather  was 
a  Silesian  weaver  in  the  ’forties,  and  the  compelling 
misery  of  the  play  founded  on  actual  incidents  in 
the  life  of  the  author’s  ancestor.  The  Weavers  is 
unquestionably  Hauptmann  at  his  best.  Sentimen¬ 
talists  and  chocolate-and-whipped-cream  Backfische 
prefer  The  Sunken  Bell,  with  its  mystic  and  roman¬ 
tic  symbolism,  but  in  every  line  and  scene  of  The 
Weavers  there  is  a  vision  of  red  blood  and  pulsating 
life.  If  I  were  the  head  of  the  Socialist  party,  I 
should  produce  The  Weavers  at  the  expense  of  the 
Social  Democratic  war-chest  every  night  in  every 
industrial  centre  in  the  land.  There  has  never  been 
so  soul-stirring  an  arraignment  of  the  capitalistic 
Moloch. 

Hauptmann’s  next  offering,  The  Beaver  Skin, 
which  he  called  a  comedy  of  thievery,  was  a  marked 
departure  from  anything  he  had  previously  at¬ 
tempted,  and  branded  him  a  brilliant  satirist. 
Nominally  a  skit  on  the  stealth  and  devilry  of 

223 


MEN  AROUND  THE  KAISER 


designing  womankind,  The  Beaver  Skin  was  in 
reality  a  screaming  burlesque  on  the  German  bureau¬ 
cratic  system.  The  autocratic  and  snobbish  provin¬ 
cial  administrator,  to  whom  red-tape,  circumlocution 
and  blind  adherence  to  the  letter  of  the  law  are  holy 
writ,  was  delightfully  lampooned.  Only  a  few  weeks 
after  The  Beaver  Skin  Hauptmann,  executing  as 
lightning  a  change  as  he  had  accomplished  in  the 
interval  following  The  Weavers,  revealed  himself  in 
still  another  guise  in  Hannele,  “a  dream  poem.” 
Many  consider  this  tragedy  of  a  dying  child’s 
fantastic  vision  of  her  ascent  to  Heaven  Haupt¬ 
mann’s  greatest  creation.  The  German  Emperor 
hailed  it  as  the  authentic  beginning  of  a  genuine 
modern  Christian  drama,  a  distinction  the  Kaiser 
has  since  transferred  to  the  Tyrolean  Schonherr’s 
Faith  and  Horne. 

The  Sunken  Bell  is  Hauptmann’s  deepest  plunge 
into  romanticism.  It  set  all  Germany  by  the  ears 
after  its  production  at  the  Deutsches  Theater  in 
Berlin,  in  December,  1896.  Controversy  over  its 
merits  raged  furiously  for  months,  and  made  the 
play  Hauptmann’s  greatest  success  both  at  home 
and  abroad.  The  author’s  detractors  aver  that  it 
was  Josef  Kainz,  the  young  Viennese  tragedian, 
whose  untimely  death  a  year  ago  robbed  the 
German  stage  of  its  greatest  luminary,  who 
“made”  The  Sunken  Bell  with  his  poetical  inter¬ 
pretation  of  the  bell-caster.  But  the  story  of 
Heinrich,  the  emotion-torn,  and  Rautendelein,  his 
Circe,  is  quaint  and  moving.  Tens  of  thousands 

224 


GERHART  HAUPTMANN 


who  never  saw  Kainz’  Heinrich  have  been  charmed 
by  the  sublimity  and  beauty  of  the  tale.  A  stanza, 
which  Hauptmann  puts  into  the  hero’s  mouth 
epitomises  the  psychology  of  the  piece :  “Open 
the  window !  Let  in  Light  and  God !” 

Hauptmann  has  written — emitted  is,  perhaps,  the 
better  word — new  works  incessantly  since  his  Bell, 
but,  with  the  single  exception  of  Poor  Henry,  a 
German  legendary  tragedy  ( 1902),  has  done  nothing 
to  amplify,  or  even  sustain,  his  earlier  fame.  His 
newest  play,  The  Rats,  a  tragi-comedy  of  modern 
Berlin,  the  same  theme,  strangely  enough,  to  which 
Hermann  Sudermann  has  just  dedicated  himself  in 
A  Good  Reputation,  was  an  utter  failure  two  years 
ago.  Hauptmann’s  very  latest  literary  output,  a 
novel  of  the  sea,  “Atlantis,”  his  fiftieth  birthday 
offering  to  his  admirers,  scored  only  a  moderate 
success. 

Hauptmann’s  creed  is  set  forth  in  this  striking 
introduction  to  his  “Complete  Works” : — 

“All  thinking  is  based  on  one’s  special  cast  of 
thought,  one’s  philosophic  attitude  towards  the  facts 
of  life.  All  thinking  is  moreover  a  kind  of  wrestling 
between  opponent  thoughts,  and  therefore  dramatic. 
Every  philosopher  who  puts  before  us  a  system  of 
logical  syntheses  has  built  it  up  out  of  decisions 
which  he  has  arrived  at  after  listening  to  this  com¬ 
bat  of  opinions  argued  out  at  the  bar  of  his  own 
soul.  Thus  it  is  that  I  consider  the  drama  to  be  the 
expression  of  original  thinking,  thinking  at  a  high 
stage  of  development.  But  the  dramatist  is  concerned 

225 


MEN  AROUND  THE  KAISER 


with  decisions  other  than  those  which  the  philoso¬ 
pher  specially  aims  at.  From  this  special  way  of 
looking  at  the  universe  of  life,  then,  are  born  whole 
series  of  deductions  whereby  the  sphere  of  the 
drama,  as  compared  with  that  of  the  dramaturgies 
now  in  vogue,  is  infinitely  widened.  Nothing,  there¬ 
fore,  that  presents  itself  either  to  the  external  or  the 
inward  senses  can  be  excluded  from  this  thought- 
form,  which  transmutes  itself  into  an  art-form.” 

Hauptmann  does  not  look  unlike  Goethe.  He  is 
a  tall,  stately  figure  of  a  man,  smooth-shaven,  high- 
browed  and  broad-shouldered,  with  the  same  head 
of  bristling,  upstanding  hair  which  adorned  the 
creator  of  Faust.  His  favourite  gesture  in  conver¬ 
sation  is  to  run  his  fingers  nervously  through  his 
fast-silvering  locks.  Like  Goethe,  too,  Hauptmann 
complains  that  he  is  sorely  misunderstood  by  his 
contemporaries.  His  most  striking  physical  charac¬ 
teristic  is  the  penetrating  brightness  of  his  piercing 
blue  German  eyes.  He  looks  one  squarely  in  the 
face  when  speaking,  talks  slowly  and  distinctly,  and 
plainly  weighs  every  word  before  uttering  it.  His 
features  are  exceptionally  mobile  and  expressive. 
Occasionally  a  far-way  look  steals  into  his  face, 
and  you  imagine  him  in  one  of  the  reveries  from 
which  The  Sunken  Bell  must  have  sprung. 

Hauptmann  is  something  of  an  egoist,  and  many 
think  him  arrogant.  People  say,  for  example,  he 
has  never  given  adequate  credit  to  his  great  patron, 
the  late  Otto  Brahm,  of  the  Lessing  Theater,  who 
practically  “made”  Hauptmann  as  a  dramatist,  and, 

226 


GERHART  HAUPTMANN 


in  a  spirit  of  devoted  self-sacrifice  unusual  in  this 
box-office  age,  forced  Hauptmann  plays  on  the  the¬ 
atre-going  public  year  after  year,  notwithstanding 
that  they  frequently  were  performed  to  empty 
houses.  Salzbrunn,  Hauptmann’s  birthplace,  osten¬ 
tatiously  declined  to  honour  its  most  famous  son 
on  his  fiftieth  birthday,  claiming  the  author  had  been 
too  much  consumed  with  self  ever  to  waste  time 
or  thought  on  his  native  town.  The  gravest  charge 
levelled  against  Hauptmann  is  that  he  has  been 
treasonable  to  the  ideals  which  first  gave  him  re¬ 
nown.  When  he  went  to  Stockholm  to  receive  the 
Nobel  Prize,  he  pleaded  eloquently  against  the 
accusation  that  Socialistic  blood  once  flowed  in 
his  veins.  One  is  told  nowadays  that  the  man  who 
wrote  The  Weavers  has  become  a  poet-prince  who 
is  enamoured  of  the  dolce  far  niente  of  luxurious 
living  in  a  palatial  country  house  and  an  Italian 
villa.  His  detractors,  an  army  corps  in  size,  de¬ 
clare  he  has  forgotten  that  he  was  once  the  bard  of 
toil,  and  has  become  the  poet  of  high  finance. 
Hauptmann  has  had  a  somewhat  unconventional 
matrimonial  history.  You  will  hear  that  Rauten- 
delein  of  The  Sunken  Bell  was  not  wholly  an  imagi¬ 
nary  creature.  But  friend  and  foe  alike  agree  that 
what  Hauptmann  needs  most  is  a  rest,  if  he  is  to 
augment  his  fame  by  fresh  creations.  Perhaps  the 
Prussian  Centenary  drama  he  has  written  for  pro¬ 
duction  in  his  native  province  this  summer — a  sym¬ 
bolical  epic  of  war,  revolution  and  peace- — -will 
again  permit  him  to  come  forth  laurel-crowned. 


XXVII 


PRINCE  LICHNOWSKY 

PEACE  or  war  with  England  is  the  Father¬ 
land’s  question  of  questions.  Treitschke 
adjured  his  countrymen  that,  having  settled 
their  scores  with  Denmark,  Austria  and  France,  the 
Germans’  reckoning  with  Great  Britain  would  be 
the  last  and  the  greatest.  To-day  its  inevitability  is 
circumstantially  heralded  by  a  lesser  Treitschke, 
General  von  Bernhardi,  whose  trenchant  “Germany’s 
Next  War”  has  been  compressed  into  a  popular 
edition,  in  order  that  even  the  man  in  the  street  may 
be  taught  to  anticipate  history  intelligently.  A  clash 
with  England  is  Kismet  to  immense  sections  of  the 
German  people. 

There  are  millions  of  Germans  who  disavow  the 
thought  of  war  with  Britain  as  a  hideous  and 
unthinkable  crime  against  civilisation.  They  are 
to  be  found,  unfortunately,  not  among  the  ruling 
caste,  but  mainly  among  the  commercial  and 
industrial  fraternity,  which  is  more  interested  in 
business  than  battle,  and  looks  upon  anything 
designed  to  arrest  Germany’s  vast  economic  prog¬ 
ress  as  felonious  and  reprehensible.  But  they 
constitute  a  chorus  in  the  wilderness.  If  their 

228 


PRINCE  LICHNOWSKY 


voices  could  prevail,  the  menace  of  an  Anglo- 
German  conflict  might  be  relegated  to  oblivion  for 
all  time. 

Amid  conditions  such  as  these,  it  may  be  accounted 
an  asset  for  the  world’s  peace  that  Germany  is 
represented  in  London  by  a  diplomat  of  common- 
sense  and  clear-headedness,  Prince  Karl  Maximilian 
Lichnowsky,  appointed  Ambassador  in  October, 
1912,  to  succeed  the  late  Baron  Marschall.  Prince 
Lichnowsky  has  not  had  time  to  demonstrate  his 
agility  in  treading  “the  steep  and  stony  path,”  but 
he  has  made  a  good  beginning.  He  is  burdened  with 
no  fatuous  illusions  concerning  the  imponderabilia 
of  the  situation.  He  knows  that  a  rapprochement 
cannot  be  built  up  on  intellectual  sympathies  or 
considerations  of  sentiment.  He  recognises  that 
naval  rivalry  is  the  paramount  issue.  He  realises 
that  until  it  is  adjusted,  settled  or  reconciled,  Anglo- 
German  relations  can  never  rest  on  a  foundation 
of  permanent  security  or  genuine  trust.  He  admits 
that  the  problem  bristles  with  difficulties,  both 
of  a  political  and  technical  nature,  but  he  is 
optimist  enough  to  consider  its  solution  within  the 
realm  of  possibilities.  He  admits  Great  Britain’s 
necessity  to  be  supreme  at  sea,  and  contends 
that  those  of  his  countrymen  who  dispute  it  are 
an  uninfluential  minority.  Prince  Lichnowsky  has 
not  always  been  as  sound  or  open-minded  on  naval 
politics  as  he  is  to-day.  As  recently  as  four  years 
ago  he  cherished  a  strangely  myopic  conception 
of  the  underlying  motives  of  Britain’s  demand 

229 


MEN  AROUND  THE  KAISER 


for  sovereignty  of  the  sea.  Writing  in  October,  1909, 
in  the  Deutsche  Revue,  he  advanced  the  following 
theories : — 

“British  antagonism  to  Germany  is  primarily 
the  artificial  creation  of  British  statesmen,  who 
require  a  bogey  to  awaken  modern  England  from 
the  decadence  so  vividly  described  by  Oscar  Wilde 
and  Bernard  Shaw. 

“It  was  realised  by  British  statesmen  that  the 
conversion  of  the  United  Kingdom  into  a  Capitalist 
State  had  brought  certain  evils  in  its  train.  The 
Puritan  spirit  that  founded  the  British  Empire  had 
vanished.  Its  economic  power,  like  the  fecundity  of 
British  mothers,  was  on  the  wane.  Statesmen  were 
compelled,  therefore,  to  devise  some  means  of  arous¬ 
ing  the  nation  to  a  new  effort. 

“Knowing  that  fear  was  the  best  weapon  with 
which  to  achieve  this  end,  they  seized  upon  Germany 
both  as  an  example  and  a  scarecrow.  They  ex¬ 
ploited  it  for  Imperial  defence  and  colonial  federa¬ 
tion  and  fiscal  policy. 

“As  the  supremacy  of  the  fleet  had  long  been  the 
great  British  tradition,  the  naval  authorities  did 
not  hesitate  to  misuse  the  German  fleet  for  the 
furtherance  of  their  own  political  fortunes.  They 
would  be  loth  to  declare  war  and  destroy  the 
German  fleet  and  commerce,  because  they  would 
thereby  annihilate  the  bogeys  with  whose  aid  they 
were  chiefly  enabled  to  perpetuate  their  existence 
and  popularise  Imperial  schemes.” 

By  the  summer  of  1912  a  new  light  had  dawned 
230 


PRINCE  LICHNOWSKY 


on  Prince  Lichnowsky.  Writing  in  Professor 
Stein’s  Nord  mid  Siid,  he  said  : — 

“It  is  Great  Britain’s  right  to  possess  a  mighty 
fleet.  Our  duty  on  the  other  hand  is  not  to  be 
defenceless.  It  must  give  us  cause  to  think  when  we 
find  Great  Britain  always  against  us.  We  have  to 
realise  that  Great  Britain,  which  sees  in  us  her  most 
important,  and,  therefore,  her  most  dangerous  rival, 
is  as  little  likely  to  take  our  side  in  the  future  as  she 
did  over  Morocco.  Great  Britain  will  regard  a 
German  fleet  strong  enough  to  render  us  independent 
as  a  national  danger.  We  build  a  fleet  in  order  not 
to  fall  into  a  position  of  dependence.  At  all  events, 
a  more  friendly  attitude  in  British  policy  towards  us 
must  precede  any  limitation  of  our  armaments, 
which  sprang  from  the  effects  of  British  policy  on 
the  public  mind  in  Germany.  A  solution  lies  in  a 
compromise  restricting  Anglo-German  competition 
to  the  paths  of  peaceful  industry  and  moderate 
armaments,  which  would  give  Great  Britain,  as 
champion  of  the  world,  an  opportunity  to  match 
herself  in  peace  against  a  partner  worthy  of  respect. 
After  we  have  copied  her  manners,  sports,  and 
games,  Great  Britain  should  not  take  it  amiss  that 
we  copy  her  fleet.” 

Prince  Lichnowsky’s  ideal  of  the  feasible  in 
Anglo-German  relations  is  an  entente  cordiale  based 
on  “mutual  confidence  and  common  aims,”  a  modus 
vivendi  which,  while  excluding  war,  would  avoid  the 
sacrifice  of  vital  interests  and  safeguard  national 
honour.  He  has  so  far  kept  clear  of  the  thin  ice 

231 


MEN  AROUND  THE  KAISER 


of  the  Navy  question.  None  of  his  several  public 
utterances  in  London  has  touched  it.  To 
Mr.  Churchill’s  latest  proposal  for  naval  peace — a 
“holiday  year”  in  shipbuilding — the  German 
Government  turned  a  deaf  ear,  as  it  has  done  on  all 
other  similar  occasions  in  the  past.  If  the  British 
Government  is  ever  constrained  to  make  a  formal 
tender  of  a  naval  understanding  to  Berlin,  it  will 
undoubtedly  become  Prince  Lichnowsky’s  painful 
duty  to  trudge  across  St.  James’s  Park  to  Downing 
Street  with  the  message  that  Germany  looks  upon 
the  project  as  Utopian  and  undebatable.  Not  that 
he  himself  is  a  zealot  of  the  Navy  League  rpould. 
He  is,  indeed,  on  record  as  saying  that  a  “slowing 
down  in  the  rate  of  construction,”  along  lines 
repeatedly  broached  from  the  British  side  of  the 
North  Sea,  “is  the  only  attainable  thing.”  But 
Germany’s  naval  policy  is  made  in  Leipziger  Platz, 
not  Carlton  House  Terrace. 

Like  his  compatriot  and  confrere  at  Washington, 
Count  Bernstorff,  Prince  Lichnowsky  is  essentially 
a  diplomat  of  modern  method  and  point  of 
view.  The  German  Embassy  at  London,  under  his 
predecessors,  Prince  Hatzfeldt  and  Count  Wolff- 
Metternich,  was  almost  a  hermitage.  For  years  it 
was  socially  non-existent.  Count  Metternich, 
ambassador  during  the  strained  decade  following 
the  South  African  War,  was  a  bachelor  who  ab¬ 
horred  the  role  of  either  host  or  guest.  He  lacked 
social  qualities  almost  utterly.  Many  students  of  the 
psychology  of  Anglo-German  tension  ascribe  it  to 

232 


PRINCE  LICHNOWSKY 


the  fact  that  the  wire  between  the  German  Embassy 
in  London  and  the  great  thought-moulding  circles 
of  British  life  and  society  has  long  been  out  of  work¬ 
ing  order.  Prince  Lichnowsky,  finding  the  wires 
down,  proceeded  to  put  them  up.  Forthwith  he  set 
himself  the  task  of  moving  about  and  of  seeing  and 
knowing  people.  Public  opinion  rules  in  England, 
and  he  conceived  it  his  business  to  keep  in  touch 
with  those  who  make  it.  He  accepted  invitations 
to  address  public  dinners  of  the  Royal  Society,  the 
Lord  Mayor  and  the  Chambers  of  Commerce,  and 
embraced  the  opportunity  of  the  Kaiser’s  birthday 
dinner  of  the  German  “colony”  in  London  to  dis¬ 
cuss  his  mission  and  the  ambitions  he  cherished  for 
it.  Supported  by  a  particularly  brilliant  consort,  the 
Princess  Mechthilde  Lichnowsky,  nee  Countess  Arco 
von  und  zu  Zinneberg,  he  caused  it  to  be  known  that 
the  all-important  social  phase  of  diplomatic  life  was 
to  him  a  thoroughly  congenial  obligation,  and  that  he 
purposed  living  up  to  it.  He  is  tremendously  fond 
of  sport  and  hunting,  and  lost  no  time  in  letting 
Englishmen  know  that  in  him  they  had  a  kindred 
spirit.  It  was  no  insignificant  tribute  to  the 
security  and  rapidity  with  which  Prince  and 
Princess  Lichnowsky  won  their  spurs  in  exclusive 
London  that  they  were  honoured,  within  four 
months  of  their  arrival,  with  the  presence  of  the 
King  and  Queen  at  their  dinner-table. 

Into  Prince  Lichnowsky’s  half-year  in  England 
has  been  crowded  more  diplomatic  experience  of  the 
first  magnitude  than  in  all  his  previous  career. 

233 


MEN  AROUND  THE  KAISER 


Britain’s  leadership  of  the  Concert  of  Europe  in  the 
liquidation  of  Turkey  gave  responsible  opportunities 
to  Ambassadors  accredited  to  the  Court  of  St. 
James.  That  England  and  Germany  found  it  pos¬ 
sible  throughout  the  tortuous  progress  of  the  Balkan 
settlement  to  co-operate  under  truly  intimate  and 
confidential  conditions  proved  that  the  Kaiser  is 
represented  in  London  by  an  Ambassador  of  dis¬ 
tinguished  capacity.  It  is  hardly  mere  chance  that 
at  least  an  external  improvement  in  the  highly- 
charged  Anglo-German  atmosphere  has  ensued  dur¬ 
ing  Prince  Lichnowsky’s  brief  residence  in  England. 

The  Prince  is  fifty-three  years  old,  and  is  the  head 
of  a  Silesian  family  of  ancient  aristocratic  lineage, 
with  large  estates  at  Kuchelna  and  Gratz.  His 
mother  was  a  Princess  of  Croy.  The  son  of  a 
Prussian  General  of  Cavalry,  he  himself  began  life 
as  a  soldier,  and  was  a  brother-officer  of  the  present 
Kaiser  in  the  Life  Guard  Hussars.  William  II. 
has  always  taken  a  lively  interest  in  the  careers  of 
men  who  were  with  him  at  the  University  and  in 
the  Army.  The  former  Red  Hussar  of  Potsdam, 
whose  military  rank  is  that  of  a  major,  claims  a 
particularly  warm  place  in  the  affection  of  his 
ex-colonel  whom  he  now  represents  in  England. 
The  Emperor,  recognising  the  exceeding  good 
birth  of  the  Lichnowskys,  frequently  addresses 
the  Prince  with  the  appellation  of  equality,  du. 
During  “Chancellor  crises”  Prince  Lichnowsky 
is  always  mentioned  as  a  logical  possibility  for 
the  Premiership.  He  was  a  boon  friend  of  Prince 

234 


PRINCE  LICHNOWSKY 

Biilow  and,  contrary  to  the  example  of  others, 
remained  loyal  to  the  fallen  Chancellor  after  the 
latter’s  totter  from  grace.  Prince  Lichnowsky, 
strangely  enough,  began  his  diplomatic  career  as  an 
attache  in  London  twenty-eight  years  ago.  When 
he  was  appointed  Ambassador,  he  said  he  felt,  in 
returning  to  England,  like  a  man  going  back  home. 
After  serving  in  London  the  Prince  was  stationed 
successively  at  Stockholm,  Constantinople,  Dresden, 
Bucharest  and  Vienna,  and  then  became  a  depart¬ 
ment-chief  at  the  Foreign  Office  in  Berlin,  where  he 
remained  with  the  rank  of  a  Minister  Plenipotentiary 
until  his  retirement  in  1904.  The  eight  years’  inter¬ 
val  of  his  diplomatic  inactivity  was  employed  mainly 
in  superintending  the  extensive  properties  inherited 
from  his  father,  though  he  found  time  to  participate 
in  domestic  politics  as  a  hereditary  member  of  the 
Prussian  Upper  House. 

Although  a  Roman  Catholic,  Prince  Lichnowsky 
has  never  identified  himself  with  the  Clerical  Centre 
Party  or  its  ultramontane  politics.  Nominally 
a  Conservative,  he  revealed  distinct  traces  of 
Liberalism  during  the  bitter  controversy  over 
Prussian  Franchise  Reform  in  1910.  In  vigorous 
speeches  in  the  Herrenhaus  he  put  himself  on 
record  in  favour  of  a  sane  revision  of  the  Suffrage 
system,  declaring  that  “the  necessity  to  make 
timely  concessions  to  the  Democracy  is  imperative 
and  can  no  longer  be  avoided.”  He  declined  to 
be  associated  with  any  reform  which  did  not  accede 
to  justifiable  demands  for  more  truly  popular 

235 


MEN  AROUND  THE  KAISER 


government  in  Prussia.  Perhaps  Prince  Lich- 
nowsky’s  insistence  on  the  rights  of  the  proletariat 
sprang  from  recollections  of  the  terrible  fate  of  his 
paternal  uncle,  Prince  Felix  Lichnowsky,  who  was 
foully  lynched  by  the  Democratic  mob  outside 
Frankfort  in  the  frenzied  days  of  the  Revolution 
of  1848. 

Unprepossessing  of  exterior,  with  a  head  of 
somewhat  pentagonal  mould  and  a  stooping  figure, 
Prince  Lichnowsky  looks  the  Polish  aristocrat  of 
another  generation,  with  all  the  distingue  of  the 
Grand  Seigneur  of  that  type.  He  has  a  strongly 
accentuated  artistic  nature.  His  knowledge  of  the 
English  language  is  faultless.  He  sometimes  con¬ 
veys  the  impression  of  loquacity,  but  can  be  enig¬ 
matic  and  phlegmatic  when  it  is  useful.  His 
wife,  who  is  predestined  to  make  a  deep  impress 
on  London  society,  is,  like  her  husband,  a  clever 
writer.  Only  recently  she  has  published  a  charming 
book,  “The  Land  of  the  Pharaohs,’’  dealing  vividly 
with  impressions  of  trips  through  Egypt. 

With  their  wealth,  bonhomie ,  personal  prestige, 
predilections  for  the  best  things  in  English  life, 
and  natural  social  gifts,  Prince  and  Princess  Lich¬ 
nowsky  fit  ideally  into  the  charmed  circle  of  London 
diplomacy.  Neither  of  them  is  likely  to  fall  a 
victim  of  its  seductive  pitfalls. 


XXVIII 


VON  KIDERLEN-WAECHTER 

IT  was  a  tragic  coincidence  which  willed  that 
the  collapse  of  Turkey,  where  Germany’s 
politico-economic  interests  have  of  recent 
years  been  so  assiduously  cultivated,  should  syn¬ 
chronise  with  the  almost  simultaneous  deaths  of 
Germany’s  greatest  specialists  on  Near  Eastern 
affairs — Baron  Marschall  von  Bieberstein  and  Herr 
von  Kiderlen-Waechter.  Without  sinning  on  the 
side  of  triteness  it  can  be  asserted  that  their  loss 
was  almost  irreparable.  At  the  psychological 
moment  of  their  departure,  when  the  incalculable 
possibilities  of  the  Balkan  War  monopolised 
Europe’s  attention,  it  was  as  if  the  German  polit¬ 
ical  army  had  lost  its  entire  Intelligence  Department 
at  one  blow. 

Kiderlen — the  hyphenated  name  of  the  late 
Foreign  Secretary  was  seldom  used — had  been  in 
charge  of  the  Auswartiges  Amt  only  two  years  and 
a  half  when  stricken  down  in  the  early  hours  of 
1913  ;  but  he  had  been  a  positive  factor  in  Germany’s 
foreign  affairs  for  a  generation.  In  the  first  two 
great  European  crises  of  the  present  century — the 
Bosnian  annexation  of  1909,  and  the  Morocco 
imbroglio  of  191 1 — the  bluff,  rotund  Wurtemberger, 
whose  diplomatic  schoolmaster  was  Bismarck, 

237 


MEN  AROUND  THE  KAISER 


played  the  leading  role.  From  the  Bosnian  incident 
he  emerged  triumphant.  Morocco  added  no  lustre 
to  his  fame,  but  he  survived  it  brilliantly,  and  his 
star  was  steadily,  even  rapidly,  in  the  ascendant 
when  his  end  came.  Rapprochement  with  England 
was  the  ideal  to  which  his  ebbing  energies  were 
being  devoted.  He  did  not  believe  that  Anglo- 
German  rivalries  must  end  in  Armageddon.  “The 
English,”  he  said  to  a  friend,  only  a  few  weeks  be¬ 
fore  his  death,  “are  much  too  shrewd  business  peo¬ 
ple  not  to  realise,  finally,  that  neither  they  nor  we 
can  profit  from  the  present  state  of  affairs.  You 
may  be  sure  an  understanding  will  come  no  matter 
who  is  Ambassador  in  London!”  Kiderlen’s  last 
public  utterance  was  a  brief,  but  telling,  statement 
in  the  Reichstag  recording  the  “gratifying  intimacy” 
which  had  sprung  up  between  the  British  and 
German  Governments  in  connection  with  the  Balkan 
turmoil. 

When  Herr  von  Kiderlen  was  summoned  to  the 
German  Foreign  Office  in  the  summer  of  1910,  his 
advent  on  the  scene  of  contemporary  diplomacy 
was  hailed  as  the  arrival  of  “a  new  force  in  Europe.” 
Here  and  there  he  was  welcomed  as  “the  new 
Bismarck.”  He  had,  and  deserved,  a  reputation 
for  ruthless  directness  of  method  which  is  popularly 
associated  with  the  Iron  Chancellor.  That  Kiderlen 
was  to  prove  at  least  a  disturbing  force,  events  of 
the  succeeding  summer  were  to  show ;  for  the 
Moroccan  adventure  was  primarily,  if  not  exclu¬ 
sively,  of  his  making.  He  did  not  come  out  of  it 

238 


VON  KIDERLE  N-W  A  E  C  H  T  E  R 


with  his  diplomatic  reputation  enhanced;  but  that 
he  remained  as  Foreign  Secretary  after  detractors 
ha.'  composed  his  political  obituary  a  dozen  times 
is,  perhaps,  the  highest  tribute  which  could  be  paid 
to  his  skill.  The  Kaiser  is  not  accustomed  to 
tolerate  failures  in  exposed  positions.  Kiderlen’s 
power  and  influence  grew  to  be  immeasurably 
higher  after  Agadir  than  they  were  before. 

Kiderlen  became  a  truly  national  figure  in  Ger¬ 
many  under  circumstances  designed  to  ruin  the 
career  of  a  merely  average  politician  or  diplomat. 
Germany  was  still  in  the  tumult  of  the  “Kaiser 
crisis”  of  November,  1908,  when  a  fat  and  florid 
man  in  a  lurid  yellow  waistcoat  rose  from  the' 
Government  bench  in  the  Reichstag.  He  was  the 
unrecognised  spokesman  of  the  Foreign  Office.  It 
fell  to  his  thankless  lot  to  defend  the  Department 
against  scathing  attack  from  a  dozen  quarters. 
“The  Foreign  Office,”  he  began,  “is  hopelessly 
understaffed.  We  are  handling  four  times  as 
many  documents  as  ever  before  in  our  history.  I 
will  match  our  zealous  personnel  against  that  of 
any  Foreign  Office  in  the  world.”  This  circum¬ 
locutory  defence  of  the  Department  against  crass 
incompetency  caused  the  House  to  rock  with 
ironical  delight.  The  Acting  Foreign  Secretary, 
Herr  von  Kiderlen-Waechter,  got  no  further. 
The  remainder  of  his  “speech”  was  drowned  in  a 
Niagara  of  hilarity.  The  “man  with  the  yellow 
waistcoat” — so  was  he  destined  henceforth  to  be 
known — ignominiously  resumed  his  seat,  com- 

239 


MEN  AROUND  THE  KAISER 


pletely  laughed  down.  Few  knew  him,  but  who¬ 
ever  he  was,  his  career  was  considered  closed. 

But  people  erred  grievously  in  judging  Kiderlen 
from  his  absurd  maiden  effort  in  the  Reichstag. 
Summoned  to  serve  as  Foreign  Secretary  tempo¬ 
rarily  while  the  “Kaiser  crisis”  was  raging,  he  was 
thrown  into  the  breach  at  a  psychological  moment, 
for  a  few  months  later  the  Bosnian  annexation 
plunged  the  Austrian-German  alliance  into  the  cru¬ 
cial  test  of  its  career.  Events  proved  Kiderlen  to 
be  the  man  of  the  hour.  With  ten  years  of  experi¬ 
ence  at  the  important  diplomatic  outpost  of  Bucha¬ 
rest  at  his  back,  and  intermittent  periods  of  deputis¬ 
ing  for  Baron  Marschall  at  Constantinople,  Kiderlen 
had  become  an  expert  on  the  tortuous  affairs  of 
the  Near  East.  In  the  spring  of  1909,  when  Aus¬ 
tria-Hungary  and  Germany  dared  Europe  say  them 
nay  in  the  destruction  of  the  Treaty  of  Berlin,  it 
was  Kiderlen,  still  acting  as  Foreign  Secretary, 
who  held  the  reins  of  German  diplomacy  and 
directed  the  policy  which  coerced  Russia  into  sullen 
recognition  of  the  Bosnian  annexation  under  penalty 
of  war.  The  Kaiser  donned  his  “shining  armour” 
on  that  historic  occasion  at  the  instigation  of  Kider¬ 
len.  Count  Aehrenthal  and  Prince  Biilow  reaped 
the  public  laurels  of  the  ominous  triumph  of  Ger¬ 
man  diplomacy.  To  Kiderlen  belongs  the  actual 
credit. 

Elaving  snapped  his  fingers  in  the  face  of  the 
Franco-Russian  Alliance,  it  was  not  surprising  that 
Kiderlen  should  pick  out  the  Anglo-French  Entente 

240 


VON  KIDERLEN-WAECHTER 


Cordiale  as  his  next  object  of  assault.  The  French 
advance  on  Fez  gave  him  the  pretext,  and  in  July, 
1911,  the  Kaiser’s  gunboat  “Panther”  dropped 
anchor  at  Agadir.  The  history  of  that  ill-starred 
expedition  is  fresh  in  the  public  mind.  The 
“Panther”  executed  its  dramatic  spring  on  the 
Moroccan  coast,  kept  Europe  on  tenterhooks  for 
more  than  three  months,  and  then  ingloriously 
withdrew.  The  Entente  Cordiale  proved  more 
impregnable  than  “the  new  Bismarck”  had  calcu¬ 
lated.  France  remained  in  Morocco  at  the  cost 
of  “compensations”  to  Germany,  which  have  turned 
out  to  be  worth,  in  popular  estimation,  hardly  the 
coal  the  “Panther”  burned  during  her  stay  at 
Agadir. 

After  serving  through  the  Franco-Prussian  War 
as  a  volunteer,  Herr  von  Ividerlen-Waechter  entered 
the  diplomatic  service  during  the  heyday  of  the 
Bismarck  regime,  when  the  influence  of  that  strange 
unseen  autocrat  of  German  foreign  policy,  the  late 
Herr  von  Holstein,  was  paramount.  Between 
Von  Holstein,  Prince  Philip  zu  Eulenburg  and 
Kiderlen  an  intimate  friendship  existed.  Kiderlen, 
at  the  time,  was  merely  head  of  a  sub-division  at 
the  Foreign  Office,  but  his  comradeship  with  Hol¬ 
stein  and  Eulenburg  clothed  him  with  unusual  in¬ 
fluence  and  authority.  Kladderadatsch,  the  comic 
weekly,  regularly  lampooned  the  trio  of  friends.  It 
dubbed  Von  Holstein  “The  Oyster  Friend,”  Eulen¬ 
burg  “The  Troubadour,”  and  saddled  Kiderlen  with 
the  nickname  of  “Spatzle”  (Dumpling)  in  token 

241 


MEN  AROUND  THE  KAISER 


of  his  fondness  for  that  succulent  South  German 
dainty.  In  1894,  Kiderlen,  incensed  at  some  par¬ 
ticularly  bold  thrust  in  Kladderadatsch,  challenged 
its  editor,  Herr  Polstorff,  to  a  duel,  and  left  him  on 
the  field  of  honour  with  a  bullet  wound  in  the  right 
shoulder. 

Kiderlen’s  early  diplomatic  career  was  spent  as 
secretary  or  attache  at  German  embassies  and  lega¬ 
tions  in  St.  Petersburg,  Paris  and  Constantinople. 
In  1888  he  was  delegated  to  represent  the  Foreign 
Office  on  State  visits  which  William  II.  paid  to  the 
Courts  of  Russia,  Sweden  and  Denmark,  following 
his  accession.  He  was  destined  to  ingratiate  himself 
with  the  Kaiser,  who  was  immensely  fond  of  the 
young  diplomat’s  unconventional  style  and  talents 
as  a  raconteur.  It  was  these  very  traits,  however, 
which  were  to  bring  Kiderlen  into  disrepute  with 
his  Sovereign.  At  a  Cowes  regatta  a  few  years 
later,  when  he  was  again  in  his  Majesty’s  entourage, 
he  ventured  to  express  some  advanced  opinions  on 
the  Kaiser’s  procedure  while  in  British  waters,  and 
the  next  batch  of  diplomatic  changes  gazetted  by 
the  Foreign  Office  contained  the  announcement 
of  Kiderlen’s  “banishment”  to  the  legation  in 
Roumania.  There  he  bided  his  time  patiently  and 
effectively  till  his  Imperial  master  made  requisition 
for  his  expert  services  at  Berlin. 

Kiderlen’s  opportunity  came  with  the  appoint¬ 
ment  to  the  Chancellorship  of  Bethmann  Hollweg, 
whose  ignorance  of  foreign  affairs  was  profound. 
Hitherto,  German  Foreign  Secretaries  had  hardly 

242 


VON  KIDERLEN-WAECHTER 


been  more  than  amanuenses  to  Chancellors. 
Kiderlen  was  the  first  to  relegate  that  tradition. 
He  became  Foreign  Minister  in  something  more 
than  name.  Members  of  the  Berlin  Corps  Diplo¬ 
matique  soon  found  that  they  had  an  individuality 
to  deal  with,  and  not  always  an  agreeable  one,  for 
Kiderlen’s  dominant  characteristics  were  brusque¬ 
ness  of  manner  and  disregard  of  the  Chesterfieldian 
proprieties  which  smooth  the  thorniest  of  diplo¬ 
matic  paths.  He  was  rough  at  times  to  the  point 
of  uncouthness,  though  his  wit  and  joviality  usually 
saved  the  situation;  but  he  could  be  suave  and 
conciliatory  when  occasion  demanded,  and  M. 
Cambon,  the  distinguished  French  ambassador  at 
Berlin,  with  whom  the  Moroccan  duel  was  fought, 
found  his  German  adversary,  despite  his  aggressive¬ 
ness  and  tenacity  of  purpose,  at  heart  a  sane  patriot 
and  honest  antagonist. 

The  summer  of  1911  was  torrid  in  Berlin, 
atmospherically  and  politically,  and  the  diplo¬ 
matic  barometer,  which  was  chiefly  in  the  keep¬ 
ing  of  Cambon  and  Kiderlen,  more  than  once 
sank  in  response  to  some  saving  act  or  word, 
tactful  or  jovial,  from  the  good-natured  Wurtem- 
berger  who,  for  the  time  being,  held  German 
destinies  in  the  palm  of  his  hand.  A  confirmed 
bachelor,  Kiderlen  was  an  incessant  smoker  of 
sturdy  cigars,  and  his  hobby  was  the  keeping  of 
owls.  He  was  prodigiously  industrious  and  pre¬ 
ferred  work  to  social  activity.  He  put  in  his  spare 
time,  while  Foreign  Secretary,  learning  French, 

243 


MEN  AROUND  THE  KAISER 


which  he  grew  to  command.  English  was  beyond 
his  powers.  He  was  credited  with  the  ambition  to 
succeed  Baron  Marschall  at  Constantinople,  and 
when  that  field  of  usefulness  was  closed  to  him, 
he  dedicated  himself  with  all  his  iron  energy  to 
the  giant  task  of  bettering  Anglo-German  relations. 
Still  virile  and  ambitious  at  sixty,  he  had  but  entered 
on  the  best  years  of  a  busy  life  when  gathered  to 
his  fathers  in  the  holidays  of  1912 — 13. 


XXIX 


PAUL  EHRLICH 

GERMANY  believes  in  honouring  her  great 
sons  while  they  are  still  alive.  That  is  one 
of  the  reasons  why  one  has  to  drive 
through  “Paul  Ehrlichstrasse”  in  Frank  fort-on-the- 
Main  to  reach  the  Royal  Institute  for  Experimental 
Therapeutics,  where  the  discoverer  of  “606”  has 
his  workshop.  His  great  contemporary,  Professor 
Behring,  discoverer  of  the  diphtheria  anti-toxin,  has 
been  similarly  distinguished  by  the  placing  of  his 
statue  on  one  of  the  bridges  spanning  the  Spree  in 
Berlin.  The  world  at  large  knows  Professor  Ehrlich 
best  through  the  syphilis  specific  which  he  discovered 
in  1909,  but  before  that  he  had  already  accomplished 
immensely  important  results  in  the  science  of 
immunity  and  the  treatment  of  sleeping  sickness. 
The  Kaiser  decorated  him  in  1903  with  the  Prussian 
gold  medal  for  science.  Oxford,  Gottingen  and 
Chicago,  a  couple  of  years  later,  awarded  him 
honorary  degrees  for  eminent  attainments. 

Ehrlich’s  latest  discovery  was  named  “606,” 
because  it  was  the  six  hundred  and  sixth  atoxyl 
derivative  with  which  he  experimented  before  reach¬ 
ing  his  goal.  In  the  mystifying  lingo  of  the  labora- 

245 


MEN  AROUND  THE  KAISER 


tory,  the  drug  is  called  dioxydiamido-arsenobenzol. 
In  commerce  the  remedy  is  known  as  Salvarsan. 
The  present  status  of  “606”  is  hard  to  define.  The 
medical  universe  is  not  united  in  its  view  of  the  real 
value  of  the  drug.  Many  physicians  swear  by  it; 
others  swear  at  it.  Before  announcing  its  discovery, 
Ehrlich  accumulated  records  of  ten  thousand  cases, 
all  of  which,  except  a  minor  percentage,  were 
definitely  cured  within  a  miraculously  quick  period. 
He  attributed  the  few  failures  to  the  fact  that  he 
could  not  at  first  be  sure  how  large  a  dose  could  be 
safely  administered  to  a  human  being.  “606”  is  not 
the  cure-all  hailed  so  rapturously  by  the  suffering 
section  of  an  ignorant  public  four  years  ago,  but  it 
is  admittedly  a  remarkable  specific,  and  invaluable 
in  the  treatment  of  the  malady  at  which  it  is  aimed. 
It  is  undeniably  efficacious.  Whether  it  cures 
permanently  can  only  be  determined  by  years  of 
minute  observation.  Argument  over  its  merits  or 
demerits  has  grown  materially  less  acrimonious. 
It  is  now  an  accepted  drug.  Ehrlich  himself 
recognizes  its  imperfections.  At  least  a  third  of  his 
time  is  devoted  to  probing  and  eradicating  them. 
Cancer  and  sleeping  sickness  are  the  other  subjects 
on  which  he  is  concentrating. 

Claude  Bernard,  Helmholtz,  Pasteur  and  Ehrlich 
have  been  bracketed  by  an  eminent  authority  as 
“the  unexcelled  prototypes  of  investigators  of  life 
phenomena  in  medicine.”  Ehrlich  stands  out  from 
the  rest  mainly  by  reason  of  his  imagination  and 
idealism.  A  foreign  admirer  has  spoken  of  “the 

246 


PAUL  EHRLICH 


uniquely  fertile  and  versatile  career  of  research” 
which  has  made  Ehrlich  “the  most  original  and 
picturesque  of  living  investigators  of  medical 
science.”  Though  Ehrlich’s  discoveries  compre¬ 
hend  such  divergent  branches  as  chemistry,  bacteriol¬ 
ogy,  neurology,  histology,  internal  medicine,  pathol¬ 
ogy,  pharmacology,  studies  of  the  protozoa  and 
immunity,  his  life-work,  according  to  his  biog¬ 
rapher,  Mrs.  Marguerite  Marks,  “presents  a  logical 
sequence.” 

Writing  in  McClure’s  Magazine  for  December, 
1910,  Mrs.  Marks,  whose  husband  was  an  assistant 
in  Ehrlich’s  laboratory,  gives  an  authoritative 
account  of  the  latter’s  “basic  idea.”  “Briefly,”  she 
says,  “it  is  this :  that  each  and  every  type  of  living 
cell,  including  bacteria  and  other  parasites,  has  a 
specific  affinity — an  individual  taste  or  avidity — for 
some  particular  substance.  A  given  drug,  when 
taken  into  the  body,  is  not  equally  distributed 
throughout  the  body,  nor  does  it  equally  affect 
the  different  tissues  and  organs.  Thus,  morphine 
and  strychnine  affect  the  nervous  system,  digitalis 
acts  on  the  heart,  etc.  Stated  thus,  in  general 
terms,  the  theory  that  each  tissue  has  a  selected 
affinity  for  certain  drugs  is  a  commonplace  of 
medical  knowledge.  But  Ehrlich  elaborated  the 
theory  till  it  took  on  new  meanings.  By  experi¬ 
menting  along  the  line  of  his  theory,  he  has  been 
able,  in  at  least  two  instances,  to  discover  drugs  that 
will  destroy  certain  virulent  disease  germs  in  the 
human  system  without  injuring  the  body  tissues 

247 


MEN  AROUND  THE  KAISER 


in  the  midst  of  which  the  germs  lurk.  Ehrlich  has 
thus  forecast  the  probably  not  distant  day  when  a 
specific  and  certain  remedy  for  every  germ  disease 
to  which  humanity  is  heir  will  be  at  the  service  of 
the  medical  profession.” 

Ehrlich’s  work  as  a  young  scientist  attracted  the 
attention  of  Professor  Robert  Koch,  who  made  a 
place  for  him  in  the  Koch  Institute  in  Berlin  in 
1890.  For  twelve  years  previous  Ehrlich  had  been 
laying  the  foundations  of  his  career  as  a  humble 
clinical  assistant  in  the  laboratories  of  various 
noted  scientists.  His  first  achievement  to  attract 
world-wide  attention  was  that  which  extended 
medical  knowledge  of  the  cellular  elements  of  blood. 
In  the  past  science  had  confined  itself  to  studying 
fresh  blood  with  a  microscope.  Quite  by  accident, 
Ehrlich  found  that  dried  smears  of  blood,  stained 
with  many  different  kinds  of  dyestuffs,  concealed 
secrets  hitherto  undreamt  of.  As  a  result  of  long¬ 
time  experimentation  with  the  phenomenon  across 
which  he  had  simply  stumbled,  Ehrlich  arrived  at  a 
staining  solution,  still  known  as  the  “Ehrlich 
tri-acid  stain,”  which  permits  the  differentiation  of 
normal  white  blood  corpuscles  into  five  distinct 
varieties.  The  now  familiar  “blood  tests,”  enabling 
instantaneous  detection  and  diagnosis  of  different 
diseases,  were  largely  revolutionized  by  Ehrlich’s 
discoveries.  Later  he  determined  an  exact  method 
of  distinguishing  tubercle  bacilli  from  the  other 
bacteria  with  which  they  are  commonly  associated. 

Ehrlich  next  turned  his  restless  and  imaginative 
248 


PAUL  EPIRLICH 


mind  to  the  subject  of  immunity.  What  he  was 
looking  for  was  a  sound  hypothesis  which  could 
explain  the  commonplace  knowledge  that  a  person 
who  has  survived  infectious  diseases  like  scarlet 
fever,  small-pox  or  measles,  is  seldom  re-attacked. 
His  discoveries,  based  as  always  on  extended  and 
patient  experimental  work,  which  was  chiefly 
distinguished  for  merciless  disappointments,  were 
finally  triumphant  and  laid  the  foundation  for  the 
practical  technique  of  immunization.  Ehrlich  also 
demonstrated  that  immunity  was  transferable. 
Behring’s  new  diphtheria  anti-toxin  was  at  this 
time  coming  into  general  use,  and  Ehrlich  set  to 
work  to  devise  a  standard  which  would  guarantee 
the  production  of  non-deleterious  serum.  Again 
his  labours  were  rewarded,  and  he  devised  a  standard 
which  the  German  Government,  and  in  its  wake  all 
other  governments,  presently  adopted.  In  recogni¬ 
tion  of  his  services  in  standardizing  anti-toxins,  the 
State  of  Prussia  placed  Ehrlich  at  the  head  of  a 
Government  institute  at  Steglitz,  near  Berlin, 
founded  specially  for  the  purpose  of  exhaustive 
research  in  the  anti-toxin  field.  Both  Ehrlich  and 
the  field  rapidly  outgrew  the  ramifications  of  the 
Steglitz  establishment,  and  he  was  appointed  to 
take  charge  of  the  more  capacious  and  newly- 
founded  Royal  Institute  for  Experimental  Thera¬ 
peutics  at  Frankfort.  Though  Ehrlich  long  ago 
diverted  his  personal  attention  from  the  anti-toxin 
branch,  serum  examination  remains  the  Institute’s 
principal  speciality. 


249 


MEN  AROUND  THE  KAISER 


Sleeping  sickness,  the  scourge  which  has  devastated 
sections  of  British  Africa  at  the  rate  of  one  hundred 
thousand  victims  within  three  years,  was  the  next 
theme  to  fascinate  Ehrlich’s  attention.  He  devoted 
himself  to  a  series  of  trials  which  included  the  in¬ 
oculation  of  animals  with  hundreds  of  different  dye¬ 
stuffs,  in  order  to  ascertain  which  one  of  them, 
combined  with  arsenic,  was  the  most  efficacious. 
By  dint  of  endless  experiments  he  finally  found  one 
— the  418th — which  proved  to  be  a  specific  for 
sleeping  sickness.  He  called  it  arseno-phenyl-glycin. 
One  injection  cures  all  animals,  even  those  which 
seem  to  be  dying.  Arseno-phenyl-glycin  is  the 
remedy  now  being  administered  to  sleeping  sickness 
victims  in  Africa.  It  must  be  used  with  extreme 
caution,  and  time  will  be  required  to  demonstrate  its 
merits.  Early  results  in  places  like  Togo  were  highly 
promising.  It  appears  that  two  comparatively  light 
injections  have  effected  definite  cures,  though  the 
disease  prevalent  in  Togo  is  more  amenable  to  treat¬ 
ment  than  the  scourge  raging  in  Central  Africa.  In 
the  Philippines  surra,  a  horse  disease,  has  been  suc¬ 
cessfully  combated  with  Ehrlich’s  sleeping  sickness 
antidote. 

A  cancer  cure,  that  gleaming  goal  on  which  the 
medical  minds  of  all  the  decades  have  been  concen¬ 
trated,  has  long  engaged  Ehrlich’s  thought.  He  is 
too  conservative  to  prognosticate  that  he  has  even 
approached  it,  but  he  has  observed  important 
phenomena  which  have  advanced  current  investiga¬ 
tion  substantially.  He  is  confident  science  will 

250 


PAUL  EHRLICH 


eventually  triumph  over  cancer,  though  not  soon, 
and  he  is  convinced  that  the  solution  lies  along 
the  road  of  tireless  experiments  on  animals.  At 
present  he  is  treading  that  path,  part  of  the  time 
in  conjunction  with  a  now  famous  pupil,  Professor 
von  Wassermann  of  Berlin,  who  has  attained 
notable  way-station  results. 

Ehrlich’s  career  is  an  inspiring  confirmation  of 
the  theory  that  study  at  university  is  a  waste  of 
time.  At  Heidelberg,  they  say,  nobody  ever  studies. 
Paul  Ehrlich  sojourned  at  the  universities  of 
Breslau,  Strassburg,  Freiburg  and  Leipzig,  but  it 
is  not  on  record  that  he  concerned  himself  unduly 
with  the  pearls  of  wisdom  cast  before  him  by  his 
professors.  He  “cut”  more  lectures  than  he 
attended.  Original  work  seemed  immensely  more 
fruitful  to  him.  He  never  “studied”  chemistry. 
He  has  always  relied  on  what  he  calls  his  most 
powerful  asset,  “a  chemical  imagination.”  He 
gives  full  rein  to  his  fantasies  and  uses  what  he  calls 
a  “play  chemistry.”  He  says  chance  figures 
considerably  in  the  “triumphs”  of  medical  science, 
and  he  never  considers  anything  absurd  till  he  has 
proved  it  so.  With  a  keenness  of  perception  which 
did  them  credit,  Ehrlich’s  official  taskmasters  of 
school  days  let  him  very  much  alone.  Neither  he 
nor  they  were  at  all  worried  by  his  failure  at  the  end 
of  the  five-year  term  to  pass  his  examinations.  He 
continued  his  university  studies  another  year  and 
won  his  diploma  by  dint  of  independent  research 
work  of  the  first  order. 


251 


MEN  AROUND  THE  KAISER 

Ehrlich,  a  native  Silesian,  is  still  a  young  man,  as 
scientists  go,  for  he  is  just  fifty-nine.  His  father 
was  a  business  man,  but  he  inherited  science  from 
his  paternal  grandfather,  who  was  still  lecturing  on 
physics  and  botany  at  ninety.  Ehrlich  is  a  spare, 
thin,  nervous  little  man,  hardly  five  feet  high,  with 
greyish  white  hair  and  beard,  rapidly  turning  yellow 
from  excessive  smoking — his  ruling  passion.  He  is 
never  even  photographed  far  away  from  a  cigar. 
Pale,  penetrating  blue  eyes  beam  from  behind  heavy, 
black-rimmed  spectacles,  over  which  Ehrlich  peers 
oftener  than  through,  giving  him  a  curiously 
questioning,  half-furtive  expression.  He  has  the 
absent-mindedness  and  dowdiness  of  the  German 
professor  of  tradition.  His  cigar  is  the  only  thing 
he  never  forgets,  but  he  almost  always  overlooks 
removing  its  ashes  from  the  particular  portion  of  his 
clothes  on  which  they  chance  to  alight.  His  library 
is  as  orderly,  but  no  more  so,  than  his  personal 
attire.  Tables,  chairs,  sofa,  desk  and  window-sills 
are  always  piled  high  with  books,  papers  and 
pamphlets.  Nobody  ever  dares  to  disturb  the 
systematic  chaos  of  the  place.  Ehrlich  once  lent 
a  man  some  books  and  received  others  in  return. 
Neither  ever  thought  of  restoring  them  to  their 
rightful  owner.  One  day,  long  afterwards,  Ehrlich’s 
books  came  back  with  a  note  from  his  friend,  saying 
he  had  married,  moved  and  cleaned  up  his  library. 
Ehrlich  replied :  “I  congratulate  you  on  your 
marriage,  and  thank  you  for  sending  back  my  books, 
but  if  you  think  that  because  you  have  moved  and 
252 


PAUL  EHRLICH 


gotten  married  I  am  going  to  clear  up  my  library 
and  find  your  books,  you  are  very  much  mistaken.” 
Ehrlich  had  a  habit  in  his  younger  days  of  collecting 
old  linen,  with  which  to  clean  slides.  Cast-off 
handkerchiefs  and  shirts  were  his  specialities. 
Once  at  a  lecture,  wanting  to  mop  his  brow,  he 
extracted  from  his  pocket  what  he  thought  to  be  a 
handkerchief,  but  which  turned  out  to  be  a  complete 
nightgown  belonging  to  his  wife. 

Through  marriage  and  the  profits  of  his  dis¬ 
coveries  Ehrlich  has  become  a  wealthy  man;  but 
he  has  never  gone  in  for  luxuries.  Strong  cigars  are 
his  sole  extravagance,  as  they  are  his  inseparable 
companions.  The  modest  salary  he  earned  as  a 
<yt)ung  university  professor  a  quarter  of  a  century 
ago,  he  says,  used  just  to  keep  him  supplied  with  his 
favourite  weed. 

Ehrlich  is  the  first  Jew  to  receive  the  coveted  title 
of  Excellent,  conferred  on  him  for  the  discovery  of 
“606.”  He  is  primarily  and  actually  a  chemist, 
but  he  is  in  the  broadest  sense  and  fundamentally  a 
philosopher.  His  “basic  idea”  amounts  to  a 
philosophic  theory  of  physical  life.  Germany 
expects  her  greatest  living  scientist,  in  the  afternoon 
of  his  busy  career,  to  accomplish  still  new  wonders 
on  behalf  of  suffering  humanity. 


XXX 


POSADOWSKY 

IN  the  Reichstag,  the  parliament  of  fourteen 
parties,  sits  a  patriarchal,  white-bearded  noble¬ 
man,  the  only  man  in  all  that  heterogeneous 
assemblage  who  does  not  wear  a  party  label.  He 
is  Dr.  Count  Arthur  von  Posadowsky-Wehner,  or 
Count  Posadowsky,  as  he  is  best  known,  M.P.  for 
the  Westphalian  industrial  division  of  Bielefeld, 
and  Germany’s  foremost  Social  Reformer.  When 
the  warring  factions  which  pass  for  Parties  in  the 
Fatherland  were  looking  for  a  candidate  to  wrest 
Bielefeld  from  Socialism  at  the  election  of  1912, 
they  decided  there  was  but  one  personality  in 
Germany  strong  enough  to  stem  the  red  tide 
already  engulfing  the  country  constituency  by 
constituency.  Conservative,  Catholic  Clericals, 
National  Liberals  and  Radicals,  sinking  mutual 
hatreds  and  opposing  views,  prevailed  on  Count 
Posadowsky  to  contest  the  division  in  their  joint 
name.  He  consented,  on  the  strict  understanding 
that  he  was  to  remain  “a  free  man,”  both  in  and 
out  of  Parliament,  and  for  the  first  time  in  many 
years  Bielefeld  turned  its  back  on  Socialism.  It 
sent  to  the  Reichstag  a  deputy  who,  as  a  long-time 
member  of  the  Kaiser’s  cabinets,  had  set  the 
example,  unique  in  Prussia-Germany,  of  being  not 

254 


POS ADO WSK Y 


only  a  Minister  of  the  Crown,  but  a  representative 
of  the  people.  Bielefeld’s  spokesman  in  Berlin  is 
in  many  respects  the  Fatherland’s  most  popular 
politician.  A  year  ago  the  German  “Air  Party,” 
bent  on  outstripping  French  efforts  in  the  same 
direction,  organised  a  German  National  Fund  for 
the  promotion  of  military  airmanship.  To  insure  it 
enthusiastic  support  from  one  end  of  the  Empire 
to  another,  Count  Posadowsky  was  asked  to  be¬ 
come  the  Honorary  President.  Within  six  months, 
subscriptions  aggregating  $1,750,000  rolled  in.  The 
French  were  beaten  almost  two  to  one. 

Count  Posadowsky  owes  his  fame  and  popularity 
to  his  eminent  service  as  administrator  and  reformer 
of  German  Social  Legislation.  He  was  not  the 
father  of  State  Insurance,  in  which  realm  it  has 
truly  been  said  that  Germany  is  a  generation 
ahead  of  the  rest  of  the  world,  but  he  was  the 
pioneer  of  the  modern  idea  on  which  the  whole 
great  scheme  now  rests,  viz.,  that  State  care  of  the 
sick,  the  injured,  the  disabled,  and  the  old  is  not 
a  condescension,  but  an  obligation.  It  was  the 
Posadowsky  era  at  the  German  Imperial  Ministry 
of  the  Interior  which  first  broke  with  the  tradition 
that  Workmen’s  Insurance  was  primarily  a  sop 
to  the  proletariat  for  anti-Socialistic  purposes.  It 
was  Posadowsky  who,  abandoning  the  idea  of 
Patriarchalism,  made  the  nation  understand  that 
State  Insurance  was  an  institution  intrenched  in 
justice  and  right.  He  caused  it  to  be  recognised  as 
a  system  which  formed  an  indissoluble  part  of  hu- 

255 


MEN  AROUND  THE  KAISER 

manity’s  self-liberating  process.  It  required  courage 
and  tenacity  to  advocate  these  revolutionary  views 
as  an  active  member  of  an  aristocratic  and  semi- 
autocratic  Government.  The  closing  hours  of  the 
old  century  were  ringing  with  demands  for  re-en¬ 
forcement  of  Bismarck’s  anti-Socialist  repressive 
laws.  German  industry,  alarmed  at  the  increasing 
terrorism  of  Social  Democracy,  had  accomplished 
the  passage  of  the  so-called  “Convict-Prison  Law,” 
providing  penal  servitude  for  strike-pickets  who 
molested  blacklegs.  It  was  the  time  when  the  in¬ 
fluence  of  Von  Miquel,  the  shrewd  Prussian  Chan¬ 
cellor  of  the  Exchequer  known  as  the  Finance 
Sorcerer,  was  paramount.  It  was  in  such  an  en¬ 
vironment  that  Count  Posadowsky  made  bold  to 
proclaim  the  doctrine  that  the  Labour  movement 
was  not  merely  something  to  be  tolerated  by  a  quasi- 
benevolent  Government,  but  was  a  necessary  and 
commendable  development  of  industrial  life.  He 
was  the  first  responsible  German  statesman  to  dis¬ 
tinguish  between  Social  Democracy  and  the  aspira¬ 
tions  of  the  working  classes  as  such,  and  to  insist 
that  justice  must  be  meted  out  to  Labour  on  terms 
of  absolute  equality  with  any  other  section  of  the 
community.  He  consorted  freely  with  Social 
Democrats,  because  they  were  the  recognised  politi¬ 
cal  leaders  of  the  working  class.  He  found  it  per¬ 
fectly  natural  for  a  Minister  in  charge  of  the  de¬ 
partment  intimately  concerned  with  the  weal  and 
woe  of  Labour  to  consult  the  men  to  whom  Labour 
looked  for  guidance  and  protection. 

256 


POS ADO WSK Y 

Posadowsky  became  Imperial  Home  Secretary 
in  1897.  His  debut  at  the  Department  of  the 
Interior,  which  followed  four  years  of  effective 
work  as  Secretary  of  the  Imperial  Treasury,  was 
marked  by  a  speech  which  denoted  a  programme 
for  his  coming  administration.  He  expressed  the 
belief  that  the  Social  Legislation  system  was 
burdened  with  excessive  laws  and  regulations. 
He  declared  himself  opposed  to  the  policy  of  piling 
constantly  fresh  paragraphs  on  to  the  statute  books 
and  hampering  industry  with  interfering  police 
measures.  “Too  much  governing,”  he  asserted, 
“gets  on  the  nerves  of  the  German  people.  We 
must  not  convert  the  Fatherland  into  a  ‘prison 
state.’  ”  That  seditious  utterance  proved  the  key¬ 
note  of  Posadowsky’s  Social  Reform  policy — 
simplification  and  modernisation.  He  advocated 
his  ideas  fearlessly  in  private  and  public.  It 
used  to  be  said  that  he  had  more  backbone  than  all 
his  Ministerial  colleagues  put  together.  He  had  a 
lively  contempt  for  the  German  craze  for  orders  and 
decorations.  His  popularity  with  the  masses  was 
achieved  at  the  expense  of  becoming  almost 
persona  non  grata  “higher  up.”  His  tremendous 
energy  and  seriousness  were  regarded  a  bore  by  the 
Court  clique,  which  resented  Posadowsky’s  demo¬ 
cratic  disregard  of  traditions  and  irrepressible 
fondness  for  speaking  plainly  to  the  Emperor.  In 
those  quarters  originated  the  amusing  story  that  the 
Kaiser,  fatigued  by  Posadowsky’s  prosaic  J'ortrdge, 
was  accustomed  to  bring  them  to  an  abrupt  end  by 

257 


MEN  AROUND  THE  KAISER 


causing  the  Imperial  dachshunds  to  play  about  the 
Home  Secretary’s  legs  while  he  was  in  the  midst 
of  a  learned  disquisition  on  Workmen’s  Dwellings  or 
Factory  Hygiene.  It  was  said  that  for  many  months 
before  his  retirement  from  office  in  1907  Posadow- 
sky  was  so  little  liked  that  he  was  practically  black¬ 
listed  in  Imperial  quarters;  but  he  had  earned  the 
reputation  of  being  the  ablest,  hardest-working, 
and  frankest  official  adviser  Emperor  William 
ever  had. 

No  mere  list  of  the  reforms  which  Posadowsky 
introduced  during  his  ten  years  at  the  Department 
of  the  Interior  conveys  an  adequate  idea  of  what  he 
did  to  extend  and  develop  the  Social  Legislation 
scheme.  Fuller  recognition  of  the  inherent  rights 
of  the  working  classes  was  the  keynote  of  his  succes¬ 
sive  reforms.  First  to  engage  his  attention  was  the 
reorganisation  of  Invalid  and  Accident  Insurance 
on  lines  more  considerate  of  the  workman’s  point  of 
view.  He  improved  the  Arbitration  Courts  in  the 
workers’  interest.  He  revised  the  provisions  of 
Sickness  Insurance  so  that  people  left  unfit  for  work 
should  be  able  at  once  to  avail  themselves  of  aid 
for  invalidity  (i.e.,  disability  or  incapacity  to  earn 
a  living),  instead  of  starving  until  the  eighteenth 
section  of  Paragraph  9,865 -B  could  be  legally 
invoked  in  their  behalf.  He  worked  out  a  new  set 
of  laws  for  the  special  benefit  of  the  seafaring 
population.  He  instituted  measures  for  the  restric¬ 
tion  and  eventual  abolition  of  child-labour  and 
“sweating.”  He  created  a  division  of  Labour 

258 


POSADOWSICY 


Records  in  the  Imperial  Statistical  Office,  which 
has  been  of  immense  importance  in  the  observation 
and  regulation  of  the  labour  market.  He  established 
at  Charlottenburg  the  world’s  only  Museum  of 
Workmen’s  Welfare,  a  wonderful  permanent  exhibi¬ 
tion  of  appliances  for  preservation  of  health  and 
prevention  of  accidents  in  shops  and  factory.  He 
inaugurated  the  policy  of  building  and  maintaining 
dwelling-houses  for  small-salaried  civil  servants, 
whose  name  in  Germany  is  legion.  He  conferred 
a  boon  on  the  shop  assistants’  class  by  passing  laws 
compelling  tradesmen  to  put  up  their  shutters  at 
nine  p.m.  German  clerks  previously  often  worked 
till  midnight.  In  1900,  three  years  after  entering 
office,  Posadowsky  submitted  to  Parliament  an 
entirely  new  set  of  State  Insurance  Laws,  which, 
in  particular,  reconciled  the  long-standing  dis¬ 
crepancy  between  the  status  of  agriculture  and 
industrial  workers.  His  proposals  were  so  mani¬ 
festly  equitable  that  the  Social  Democrats  found  it 
desirable,  practically  for  the  first  time,  to  support 
laws  submitted  in  the  name  of  the  Emperor.  In 
1903  the  Act  was  again  amended  under  Posadow- 
sky’s  leadership,  the  outstanding  improvement  be¬ 
ing  the  enlargement  of  the  maximum  period  allowed 
for  the  receipt  of  sick  benefit  from  thirteen  to 
twenty-six  weeks.  Posadowsky’s  Insurance  Reform 
policy  aimed  consistently  at  extending  the  operation 
of  the  law  to  classes  previously  excluded,  and  also 
at  increasing  the  benefit  obtainable. 

It  is  a  mighty  fabric  which  German  State  Insur- 
259 


MEN  AROUND  THE  KAISER 

ance  represent  to-day.  Figures  issued  officially  in 
191 1,  the  latest  available,  show  that  the  gross  income 
of  the  system  since  its  establishment  thirty  years 
ago  is  $625,000,000,  and  $4,087,500,000  has  been 
paid  out  in  benefits.  Roundly  fifteen  million  persons 
are  insured.  The  existing  capital  of  the  system  is 
$3-75°>000-000»  of  which  $1 16,250,000  has  been  lent 
for  construction  of  workmen’s  dwellings,  $37,500,- 
000  for  institutions  of  public  health,  $25,000,000 
to  agriculturists  in  need  of  credit,  $22,500,000  for 
hospitals  and  sanatoria,  and  $18,750,000  for  educa¬ 
tional  purposes,  while  $14,000,000  is  invested  in 
hospitals,  sanatoria,  tuberculosis  camps,  convales¬ 
cent  homes  and  invalid-houses  which  are  owned  and 
maintained  by  the  State  Insurance  Administration 
itself.  It  is  small  wonder  that  Britain  and  the  rest 
of  the  world  look  upon  Germany  as  their  school¬ 
mistress  in  the  field  of  State  Insurance  and  Old 
Age  Pensions.  She  was  a  veteran  in  it  before  they 
ever  began  to  think  about  it.  Her  scheme  is  ad¬ 
mittedly  not  yet  perfect.  She  is  even  now  reform¬ 
ing  the  Old  Age  department  so  as  to  make  pensions 
available  to  those  who  have  arrived  at  their  sixty- 
fifth  year,  instead  of  their  seventieth,  as  hitherto. 
German  Insurance  Reformers  will  not  rest  content 
until  the  institution  embraces  protection  for  widows 
and  orphans  and  against  unemployment.  Those 
are  the  problems  with  which  the  Posadowskys  of 
to-morrow  will  have  to  wrestle. 

Count  Posadowsky  is  a  native  of  Silesia,  and  is 
sixty-eight  years  old.  His  family  is  of  ancient,  noble 

260 


POSADOWSKY 


lineage,  but  their  title  of  Count  dates  from  the 
days  of  Frederick  the  Great,  who  made  the  head  of 
the  house  a  Count  for  brilliant  services  as  a  cavalry 
general  in  the  Silesian  wars.  A  graduate  of  law 
of  Breslau  University,  Posadowsky  entered  the 
Prussian  Civil  Service,  in  which  he  was  first  to  dis¬ 
tinguish  himself  as  “Provincial  Captain”  of  Posen, 
a  post  ranking  with  a  governorship.  His  talents  as 
an  economist  and  organiser  enabled  him  to  accom¬ 
plish  wonders  with  chaotic  Posen  finances,  and  his 
work  attracted  such  favourable  notice  in  Berlin 
that  he  was  called  to  the  Cabinet,  in  1893,  as 
Secretary  of  the  Imperial  Treasury.  Although  the 
Dreadnought  era  had  not  yet  dawned,  Germany 
even  then  was  revealing  a  prodigious  predilection 
for  money  spending.  Posadowsky  adhered  to  the 
principle  of  “No  expenditure  without  revenue,” 
and  besides  being  the  first  Secretary  of  the  Treasury 
to  effect  an  actual  reduction  of  the  Imperial  Debt, 
was  the  first  under  whom  the  rate  of  increase  was 
materially  diminished. 

In  two  other  fields  not  directly  associated  with 
Social  Legislation  Count  Posadowsky  has  played  a 
prominent  role.  He  is  an  earnest  advocate  of 
Protection  and  of  Temperance.  He  took  a  con¬ 
spicuous  part  in  the  negotiations  which  enabled 
Germany  to  conclude  advantageous  long-term 
Reciprocity  treaties  with  her  neighbours  in  1902. 
He  knows  the  power  of  the  weapon  Germany  holds 
in  her  tariff,  but  dislikes  tariff  wars.  When  Ger¬ 
many  and  the  United  States  were  on  the  brink  of 

261 


MEN  AROUND  THE  KAISER 


fiscal  hostilities,  Posadowsky,  in  whose  department 
tariff  affairs  were  controlled,  said:  “You  don’t  need 
me  for  a  tariff  war.  My  office  doorkeeper  is  good 
enough  for  that.”  At  the  International  Anti- 
Alcohol  Congress  in  Bremen  in  1903  Posadowsky 
declared  himself  a  teetotaler.  He  has  always  been 
active  in  support  of  the  abstinence  movement,  which 
has  a  steep  and  stony  path  to  tread  in  Germany, 
despite  the  fact  that  it  revolves  on  two  mighty, 
though  widely  divergent,  poles — the  support  of 
the  Emperor  William  and  Socialism’s  boycott  on 
Schnaps  (brandy). 

Count  Posadowsky,  personification  of  the 
aristocrat-democrat,  is  expected  to  give  the  country 
many  more  proofs  of  his  wisdom  and  progressive¬ 
ness  from  his  present  eminence  as  the  Independent 
Member  of  the  Reichstag.  He  is  the  first  ex- 
Imperial  Minister  to  face  the  Government  as  a 
Parliamentary  critic,  and  he  does  not  shrink 
from  speaking  his  mind  when  occasion  demands. 
Fluent  acquaintance  with  the  English  language 
and  Anglo-Saxon  literature  has  made  him  a 
profound  admirer  of  the  liberal  institutions  of 
Britain  and  the  United  States.  They  are  the 
ideals  he  cherishes  for  the  Fatherland,  already 
vastly  more  modern  in  many  of  its  conceptions 
by  dint  of  Posadowsky’ s  own  life-work. 


The  End 


Date  Due 

MAR  9  qrf _ 

!  Jill,  i  9  47 


